U.S. Department of Justice

Federal Bureau of Investigation

2013

An examiner with the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center 

(TEDAC)—a multi-agency operation established by the FBI in 

2003—photographs parts used in an improvised explosive device.

2013 The FBI Story I

2013

Hostage Rescue Team members debrief after a training exercise at their facility in Quantico, Virginia.
II 2013 The FBI Story
2013 The FBI Story III

A Message from FBI Director James B. Comey

This past year, the FBI and its partners again addressed a wide range of national security and criminal threats. 

Together, we responded to numerous crisis incidents, such as the terrorist bombings of the Boston Marathon and the 

shootings at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. We confronted a continued surge of cyber attacks against targets ranging 

from everyday citizens to our largest and most successful businesses. And we stopped those who would strike at the heart 

of our communities—from violent gangs and white-collar criminals to child predators and corrupt public officials.

A glimpse of the challenges we faced—and what we achieved together—can be found in this latest edition of The FBI 

Story, our annual collection of news and feature articles from the Bureau’s public website. Here you can read about some 

of our most successful recent major investigations and operations. These include a three-day nationwide sweep targeting 

child prostitution in which we identified and rescued more than 100 young victims and arrested more than 150 pimps;

the rescue of a 5-year-old boy held captive in a heavily armed bunker in Alabama; and the uncovering of the largest 

domestic bribery and bid-rigging scheme in the history of federal contracting cases—one that siphoned more than $30 

million dollars of taxpayer money.

This edition of The FBI Story also highlights 

some of the Bureau’s remarkable capabilities. 

You will find a multi-part series on our elite 

Hostage Rescue Team—which marked its 

30th anniversary this past year—and a feature 

on the Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical 

Center (TEDAC)—an FBI-established, multiagency operation that celebrated its 10th 

anniversary in 2013.

For the FBI, 2013 was a year of transition, 

as my predecessor, Robert S. Mueller, III, 

completed his extraordinary 12-year tenure 

at the helm of the Bureau. Director Mueller 

guided the FBI in the aftermath of the 

September 11th attacks and spearheaded the 

Bureau’s transformation into an intelligencedriven, threat-focused agency capable of 

confronting today’s global security threats.

Following Bob Mueller is both a great challenge 

and a tremendous privilege. In my first months 

as Director, I have been meeting with our partners in the law enforcement and intelligence communities both in the 

United States and abroad. I want to ensure that we maintain open lines of communication about the work we are doing in 

our respective communities so that we can continue to build strong relationships to carry us into the future. Those same 

open and honest lines of communication are equally crucial for our private sector partners and the citizens we serve. I 

look forward to working with all of you in the months and years to come.

Thank you for your continued trust and support of the FBI, which we need to keep our country safe from harm.

Director James Comey delivers remarks at the White House following his nomination

to lead the FBI on June 21, 2013. Director Comey was sworn in on September 4.

(White House Photo)
IV 2013 The FBI Story
2013 The FBI Story 1

Stopping a Suicide 

Bomber

Jihadist Planned Attack on

U.S. Capitol

January 4, 2013

After months of consideration, a target was picked and 

a date was set: On February 17, 2012, Amine Mohamed 

El-Khalifi would strap on a bomb-laden vest and—in the 

name of jihad—blow himself up at an entrance to the 

U.S. Capitol. If anyone tried to stop him, he would shoot 

them with a MAC-10 assault weapon.

That’s how the 29-year-old Northern Virginia resident 

believed events would unfold that Friday morning 

when he emerged from his car—suicide vest on and 

weapon by his side—in a parking garage near the 

Capitol.

“He totally believed he was going to die in the attack, 

and he seemed very much at peace with it,” said a special 

agent on our Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) who 

investigated the case. “The day of the attack, he was 

happy.”

What El-Khalifi didn’t know was that “Yusuf,” the 

supposed al Qaeda operative he was conspiring with, was 

actually an undercover FBI agent—and the would-be 

terrorist’s every move was being monitored by members of 

our Washington Field Office JTTF. Although El-Khalifi 

believed he was going to kill many people that day in the 

name of jihad, the explosives in his vest and the assault 

weapon had been rendered inoperable by FBI technicians.

A Moroccan citizen who came to the U.S. more than 

a decade ago, El-Khalifi initially embraced Western 

culture. But in 2010 he began posting radical jihadist 

messages online and expressed an interest in joining the 

mujahedeen to fight in Afghanistan. “As far as we know,” 

said the special agent who investigated El-Khalifi, “he 

became radicalized online.”

In January 2011, El-Khalifi met with individuals in 

a Washington suburb where jihad was endorsed and 

weapons were displayed. By the end of 2011—after he had 

been introduced to our undercover agent—El-Khalifi was 

actively seeking to join an armed extremist group, and he 

suggested bombing attacks on targets ranging from a local 

synagogue to a restaurant frequented by U.S. military 

officials.

During meetings with our undercover agent, El-Khalifi 

handled weapons and explosives and said he would use 

a gun to kill people face-to-face. Finally, in January 

2012, after a test explosion in a West Virginia quarry 

(carefully monitored by the JTTF), El-Khalifi decided 

to attack the Capitol building. It would be a suicide 

mission.

Over the next month, the would-be bomber visited the 

Capitol building several times to conduct surveillance. 

On the morning of February 17, El-Khalifi drove to the 

parking garage and put on the suicide vest. As he walked 

toward the Capitol, he was quickly arrested.

Four months later, El-Khalifi pled guilty to attempted 

use of a weapon of mass destruction. In September, he 

was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

“This case ended well, thanks to the work of the JTTF,” 

our agent said. “All our JTTF partners, including state 

and local law enforcement, played a key role. It’s scary to 

consider this guy’s intentions,” the agent added. “He was 

totally rational. There was no disconnect from reality—

he was going to kill people and he felt that was the right 

way to express his religious beliefs.”

The agent noted that one of El-Khalifi’s original plans 

was to take an automatic weapon to a shopping mall and 

shoot as many people as possible. “It’s frightening to think 

what might have happened if he had not shown up on the 

FBI’s radar.”

2013 The FBI Story
2 2013 The FBI Story

January 8, 2013

Left: One of six CART mobile labs with state-of-the-art capabilities for 

acquiring, processing, and analyzing digital evidence...even while the 

vehicle is in motion. 

Piecing Together 

Digital Evidence

The Computer Analysis

Response Team

terabytes of data. To put that last figure into perspective, 

it’s widely believed that the total printed content in the 

Library of Congress is equal to about 10 terabytes of data.

CART examiners are experts at extracting data from 

digital media...even when the media is damaged by the 

forces of nature or by defendants attempting to prevent 

data from being recovered.

The cases that CART examiners work span the gamut 

of FBI program areas: from cyber crimes and computer 

intrusions to violent crimes, financial crimes, organized 

crime, and national security matters. And once they have 

finished their forensic work, CART examiners are also 

available to testify in court as expert witnesses on their 

findings.

Because we come across computers and other digital 

media so often in the course of our investigative work, 

our CART examiners can’t possibly handle every piece of 

media. That’s why CART created a basic digital evidence 

training course and developed easy-to-use examination 

tools for field investigators—to give them the technical 

and legal knowledge they need to process simpler and 

more basic digital evidence from their cases without 

altering or damaging the data—which allow CART 

examiners to focus on more technically complex cases.

CART on the go. While much of CART’s work is done 

in stationary facilities in the field or back at our national 

Headquarters, we also have six mobile CART laboratories 

around the country. These mobile labs are especially 

valuable when time is of the essence, enabling digital 

evidence to be examined on the spot.

CART...an evidence response team for today’s high-tech 

environment.

In a case involving the round-up of dozens of suspects 

indicted on public corruption and other charges, 

investigators were faced with processing large numbers 

of seized cell phones, desktop computers, and laptops 

belonging to the suspects. In another case, key evidence 

against a terror suspect arrested for attempted use of a 

weapon of mass destruction included data found on his 

computer. And after a U.S. congresswoman was wounded 

and six people killed in Arizona, vital evidence was found 

on security camera footage, computers, and cell phones.

Reflecting a trend that has become increasingly 

commonplace for law enforcement, all three of these 

cases involved the need to recover digital evidence. And 

our Computer Analysis Response Team, or CART, is the 

FBI’s go-to force for providing digital forensic services not 

only to our own investigators but also in some instances 

to our local, state, and federal partners.

CART consists of nearly 500 highly trained and 

certified special agents and other professional 

personnel working at FBI Headquarters, throughout 

our 56 field offices, and within the network of 

Regional Computer Forensics Laboratories across 

the nation. They analyze a variety of digital media—

including desktop and laptop computers, CDs/DVDs, 

cell phones, digital cameras, digital media players, flash 

media, etc.—lawfully seized as part of our investigations.

During fiscal year 2012, CART—while supporting nearly 

10,400 investigations—conducted more than 13,300 

digital forensic examinations involving more than 10,500 
2013 The FBI Story 3

January 11, 2013

Human Trafficking 

Awareness

Targeting Traffickers,

Helping Victims

representatives from OVA and our civil rights program 

developed a protocol for human trafficking investigations 

that was implemented in all FBI field offices. The 

protocol highlights a victim-centered approach and the 

need for collaboration between the investigating agent, 

the local victim specialist, non-governmental agencies, 

and other law enforcement partners.

OVA oversees our child/adolescent forensic interviewers 

who work with Violent Crimes Against Children 

task forces and provide training for agents and task 

force officers working human trafficking cases. These 

interviewers also collaborated with partner agencies 

to develop an interview protocol for minor victims of 

sexploitation for use by professionals working against 

human trafficking.

Our training and awareness efforts were significant.

During fiscal year 2012, we conducted training around 

the country focused on defining, detecting, and 

investigating human trafficking cases. The audiences 

included law enforcement (both U.S. and international) 

along with government employees, religious and civic 

organizations, ethnic advocacy groups, schools, social 

service agencies, medical personnel, legal aid agencies, 

domestic violence services, etc.—in short, anyone in a 

position to make a difference in the life of a trafficking 

victim.

Multi-agency investigations, intelligence, victim 

assistance, training—we’re putting our tools and 

capabilities to work to help combat the scourge of human 

trafficking.

Last month, a Kentucky cardiologist and his ex-wife pled 

guilty to recruiting a Bolivian woman to work as their 

domestic servant and holding her unlawfully for nearly 15 

years. The couple took her passport, threatened her with 

deportation, and falsely promised that her wages were 

being put in a bank account.

Trafficking in persons is a widespread form of modern-day 

slavery, and as we observe National Slavery and Human 

Trafficking Prevention Month, we’d like to update you on 

what the FBI—with its partners—is doing to go after the 

traffickers and help the victims.

Human trafficking is a top investigative priority of the 

Bureau’s civil rights program. During fiscal year 2012, 

we opened 306 human trafficking investigations around 

the nation involving forced labor or forced household 

service as well as sex trafficking of international victims 

(young and old) and adult U.S. citizen victims.

Along the same lines, the sex trafficking of U.S. children 

is also a priority within our Violent Crimes Against 

Children program. During fiscal year 2012, we opened 

363 investigations into the commercial sexploitation of 

domestic minors. Fortunately, we were also able to locate 

more than 500 young victims of sex traffickers.

We participate in 88 human trafficking task forces and 

working groups around the country. Our efforts include 

not only investigating cases where we find them but 

also proactively using intelligence to drive and support 

these cases, looking at known areas of human trafficking 

activities, and developing liaison relationships within 

communities to promote awareness of these crimes.

Help for victims. The Bureau also has a robust assistance 

program in place for victims of human trafficking and 

other federal crimes investigated by the FBI. Our Office 

for Victim Assistance (OVA) oversees the work of victim 

specialists located throughout our 56 field offices.

These specialists—experienced in crisis intervention, 

social services, and victim assistance—work closely with 

agents to ensure that potential victims of trafficking 

are rescued, transferred to safe locations, and provided 

with referrals for medical, mental health, housing, 

legal, and other necessary services. And this past year, 
4 2013 The FBI Story

January 14, 2013

Early 2012 Crime Stats

Slight Uptick in Crime

For individual property crime offense categories, statistics 

indicate that the West had the largest increase in the 

number of burglaries (up 6.7 percent) and motor vehicle 

thefts (up 8.1 percent). And the Northeast had the largest 

rise in the number of larceny-thefts, which were up 4.5 

percent.

The statistics for arson, collected separately from other 

property crimes because of varying degrees of reporting 

among law enforcement agencies, showed an overall jump 

of 3.2 percent during the first six months of 2012. Three 

of the four regions of the country reported increases—up 

11.0 percent in the Midwest, 6.4 percent in the West, 

and 5.7 percent in the Northeast. The South saw a 5.6 

decrease in arson offenses.

New offense 

categories. On the 

heels of National 

Slavery and 

Human Trafficking 

Awareness Month 

this January, our 

Uniform Crime 

Reporting (UCR) 

Program will 

begin collecting 

human trafficking 

data this year in 

two categories—

commercial 

sex acts and 

involuntary 

servitude. The 

William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection 

Reauthorization Act of 2008 requires the data collection, 

and with input from our law enforcement partners, the 

UCR Program began developing specific definitions and 

data collection guidelines for these offenses. Stay tuned 

for more details on implementation.

Preliminary crime stats for the full year—contained in 

UCR’s Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report, JanuaryDecember 2012—should be available in six months, and 

final figures are scheduled to be released by the end of the 

year.

According to statistics from our Preliminary Semiannual 

Uniform Crime Report, January-June 2012, the number of 

violent crimes reported by law enforcement for the first 

six months of 2012 increased 1.9 percent over figures from 

the same period in 2011. Property crimes also rose 1.5 

percent overall.

Violent Crime. Two of the four offenses in the violent 

crime category actually showed overall decreases when 

compared with data from the first six months of 2011—

murders dropped 1.7 percent and forcible rapes fell 1.4 

percent. But the number of robberies increased 2.0 

percent and aggravated assaults 2.3 percent.

At a regional level, the West saw the largest overall jump 

in violent crime—up 3.1 percent—followed by a rise of 

2.5 percent in the Midwest and 1.1 percent each in the 

South and the Northeast. Despite these increases, the 

number of murders fell 4.8 percent in the South and 2.4 

percent in the Northeast.

The only violent crime offense category that showed 

increases in all four regions of the country was aggravated 

assault, which was up 4.4 percent in the Midwest, 2.4 

percent in the West, 1.7 percent in the South, and 0.8 

percent in the Northeast.

Property crime. On the property crime front, all three 

offense categories showed overall increases—1.9 percent 

for larceny-theft, 1.7 percent for motor vehicle theft, and 

0.1 percent for burglary.

Regionally, the West saw the largest rise in property 

crime—up 4.7 percent, followed closely by the Northeast 

at 4.0 percent. The Midwest was up 1.3 percent, but the 

South actually showed a decrease of 1.4 percent.
2013 The FBI Story 5

January 17, 2013

Murder-for-Hire

Web Hits of a Deadly Kind

of which involve inmates. “The names change, the story 

doesn’t,” said Miller, “but there is a threshold. It can’t just 

be, ‘I’m going to kill my lawyer,’ and that’s it.”

Sotelo agrees. “A lot of people might say they want 

someone dead,” she explained, “but unless you do 

something to put it in action, you haven’t committed a 

crime.”

As for Eid...after serving a six-year prison term in 

Ireland, he was extradited to the U.S., where he pled 

guilty to extortion charges and was sentenced in 2011 

to 33 months in prison. And Mark received six years 

for ordering the hit and using stolen credit cards.

But did Eid kill anyone? “I never could find that he 

actually did,” said Sotelo, “but he had all the stuff he 

needed,” including a pistol with a silencer, a castor bean 

plant, and a ricin recipe (he had also attempted to order 

cyanide). Thankfully, he never got to use it.

Marissa Mark wanted someone dead—her ex-boyfriend’s 

new girlfriend, to be precise. And she found a way to have 

it done...from her computer.

In September 2006, the Pennsylvania resident and recent 

college graduate logged on to HitmanForHire.net, a site 

often misinterpreted as a joke. But it was no laughing 

matter for Mark, who spelled it out very clearly: “I...want 

her done by [a] shot to the head.”

And the “hitman for hire” on the other end? Las Vegas 

poker dealer Essam Ahmed Eid, an Egyptian national 

who was apparently looking for a little something to do 

on the side. After demanding a $37,000 fee from Mark—

who came up with a “down payment” by stealing credit 

card information she had access to at the collections 

agency where she worked—Eid drove to the Los Angeles 

area, where he showed up at the workplace of the 23-yearold intended victim.

Eid presented the young woman with a dossier of sorts—

photos of her, e-mails concerning the plan—and then 

paused. “You remind me of my daughter,” he said. He 

told the victim she could have three days to pay off the 

contract, and he would let her live. Panicked, she notified 

authorities.

The case went to Special Agent Ingerd Sotelo, from 

the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. Sotelo discussed the 

particulars with the victim and had her make recorded 

phone calls pleading for more time to come up with the 

money...but Eid went radio silent.

Having identified Eid by this point and acting on a 

hunch that he had fled the country, Sotelo traced Eid to 

Ireland. She learned that he had recently been arrested 

for burglary and extortion, but thought there might be 

more to it than that—she was right. Eid had crossed the 

pond and committed those crimes because of another hit 

ordered through his website—and smuggled in homemade 

ricin in his contact lens case, to boot.

Murder-for-hire with an interstate nexus became a 

federal crime in 1958, but our involvement in these 

cases goes back at least to the 1930s and the days of 

the notorious Mafia hit squad Murder, Inc. And—

according to Special Agent Janelle Miller, head of our 

Violent Crimes Unit—they’re more common than you 

might think, “We do a lot of them,” she said; 140 cases 

not tied to organized crime are currently pending, many 
6 2013 The FBI Story

January 22, 2013

Left: One of the Detroit facilities used by Quality Recreation and

Rehabilitation, Inc. (QRR), which became Procare after Medicare 

questioned QRR’s submitted claims.

Abuse of Trust

Mentally Disabled Used to

Scam Government

Then, around June 2008, QRR received notice from 

Medicare questioning its submitted claims and the 

legitimacy of its psychotherapy services. But rather 

than shut down their fraudulent scheme, Marcus and 

Beth Jenkins simply opened a new adult day care facility 

called Procare a few months later, which also supposedly 

offered psychotherapy services. Again, the Jenkinses 

would transport Medicare patients from adult foster care 

homes to Procare, and Dr. Berry would sign patient charts 

and notes. Over the next four years, approximately $6.5 

million more in phony claims were submitted; Medicare 

ended up paying Procare approximately $2.5 million on 

those claims. And once again, the funds were diverted 

into the hands of the Jenkinses and Dr. Berry, who spent 

the money on lavish lifestyles.

The case began in October 2010, when the U.S. 

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) 

received a referral based on an unusually high number 

of hours being billed per day by Dr. Berry (sometimes 

surpassing 24 hours in one day). HHS reached out to the 

FBI, and we soon began investigating with our partners 

from HHS’ Office of Inspector General. We examined 

financial records. We interviewed QRR and Procare 

office staff, the Medicare beneficiaries, and social workers. 

And we conducted surveillance of the suspects.

In October 2011, our evidence led to indictments against 

Dr. Berry and Marcus and Beth Jenkins. The case was 

brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, 

operating in nine cities across the country and composed 

of interagency teams of analysts, investigators, and 

prosecutors who target fraud.

And what of the Medicare beneficiaries living in the 

Jenkinses’ adult foster care homes? They are being 

moved to other facilities, where they will get the care and 

medical treatment they are entitled to.

It’s hard to believe...a longtime Detroit doctor taking 

advantage of severely mentally disabled adults to line his 

own pocket.

Earlier this month, Dr. Alphonso Berry and two criminal 

colleagues—a married couple named Marcus and Beth 

Jenkins—pled guilty to defrauding the government by 

submitting more than $13.2 million worth of phony 

claims to Medicare over a seven-year period for group 

and individual psychotherapy sessions that were never 

provided.

How the scam operated. In 2004, Marcus and 

Beth Jenkins incorporated Quality Recreation and 

Rehabilitation (QRR), an adult day care center that 

claimed to provide psychotherapy services. At the same 

time, they also operated adult foster care homes in 

the Detroit area that provided 24-hour personal care, 

protection, and supervision for individuals who were—for 

the most part—mentally or physically disabled. The 

couple obtained Medicare provider numbers for QRR and 

clinicians working on staff, including Dr. Alphonso Berry.

For four years, the Jenkinses transported Medicare 

beneficiaries residing at adult foster care homes (both 

theirs and others) to QRR, and, in concert with Dr. 

Berry—who often signed patient progress charts and 

progress notes for individual and group psychotherapy 

sessions—submitted claims to Medicare for psychotherapy 

services for these beneficiaries that were never provided. 

The funds received from Medicare—approximately $1.8 

million—were diverted from QRR’s bank accounts into 

the hands of the Jenkinses and Dr. Berry.
2013 The FBI Story 7

January 25, 2013

A Byte Out of History

The Alger Hiss Story

Alger Hiss was convicted in January 1950.

The committee was torn. Who was telling the truth, 

Hiss or Chambers? And should either be charged with 

perjury?

A key turn of events came in November 1948, when 

Chambers produced documents showing both he 

and Hiss were committing espionage. Then, in early 

December, Chambers provided the committee with 

a package of microfilm and other information he had 

hidden inside a pumpkin on his Maryland farm. The 

two revelations, which became known as the “Pumpkin 

Papers,” contained images of State Department 

materials—including notes in Hiss’ own handwriting.

It was the smoking gun the Justice Department 

needed. Hiss was charged with perjury; he could not be 

indicted for espionage because the statute of limitations 

had run out. An extensive FBI investigation helped 

develop a great deal of evidence verifying Chambers’ 

statements and revealing Hiss’ cover-ups.

In 1949, the first trial resulted in a hung jury, but in 

1950, Hiss was convicted. Sixty-three years ago today, 

he was sentenced to five years in prison, ending an 

important case that helped further confirm the increasing 

penetration of the U.S. government by the Soviets during 

the Cold War.

The jury returned from its deliberations on January 21, 

1950—63 years ago this month. The verdict? Guilty on 

two counts of perjury.

Alger Hiss, a well-educated and well-connected former 

government lawyer and State Department official who 

helped create the United Nations in the aftermath of 

World War II, was headed to prison in Atlanta for lying 

to a federal grand jury.

The central issue of the trial was espionage. In August 

1948, Whittaker Chambers—a senior editor at Time

magazine—was called by the House Committee on 

Un-American Activities to corroborate the testimony of 

Elizabeth Bentley, a Soviet spy who had defected in 1945 

and accused dozens of members of the U.S. government 

of espionage. One official she named as possibly 

connected to the Soviets was Alger Hiss.

The FBI immediately began probing her claims to ensure 

those who were credibly named—including Hiss—did not 

continue to have access to government secrets or power. 

As the investigation into Bentley and related matters 

deepened in 1946 and 1947, Congress became aware 

of and concerned about the case. Details leaked to the 

press, and the investigation became national news and 

embroiled in partisan politics in the run up to the 1948 

presidential election.

Chambers, who had renounced the Communist Party 

in the late 1930s, testified reluctantly that hot summer 

day. He ultimately acknowledged he was part of the 

communist underground in the 1930s and that Hiss and 

others had been members of the group.

In later testimony, Hiss vehemently denied the 

accusation. After all, Chambers had offered no proof 

that Hiss had committed espionage or been previously 

connected to Bentley or the communist group.

It could have ended there, but members of the 

committee—especially then-California Congressman 

Richard Nixon—prodded Chambers into disclosing 

information suggesting there was more to his story 

and his relationship with Hiss. In later testimony, Hiss 

admitted knowing Chambers in the 1930s, but he 

continued to deny any ties to communism and later filed 

a libel suit against his accuser.
8 2013 The FBI Story

January 29, 2013

FBI en Español

Spanish Language Webpage 

Turns 2

media sites—uncover personal information about 

their targets, which makes the scam so much more 

believable.

▪ Last January, we warned people about new malware 

being delivered via e-mail that made it possible for 

criminals to steal money electronically from victims’ 

bank accounts.

▪ And in March 2011, we provided details on a 

California con man who ran a Ponzi scheme and 

a distressed homeowners scam, both specifically 

targeting members of the Hispanic community in Los 

Angeles.

Over the past 24 months, we’ve also run articles 

covering topics such as gangs and gang violence, hate 

crimes, telemarketing fraud, mortgage and health care 

fraud, cyber crime, sextortion, child prostitution, ATM 

skimming, identity theft, and the FBI Child ID app.

Along with our Spanish-language webpage, FBI.gov 

provides some additional Spanish content as well, 

including a number of posters on our Most Wanted 

fugitives page, key forms, and a translation of the 

authorized language on the FBI’s Anti-Piracy Warning 

Seal.

Our Spanish webpage is just one example of how we 

reach out to the Hispanic community. Our Community 

Relations Unit at FBI Headquarters—which directs the 

Bureau’s overall outreach efforts—oversees the work of 

our community outreach specialists in FBI field offices 

across the country. Our specialists interact at the local 

level with leaders, groups, and others in the Hispanic 

community, sharing information and engaging in 

meaningful dialogue. They also facilitate the participation 

of Hispanics in our Citizens Academy and CREST 

programs as well as our Director’s Community Leadership 

Awards.

“Our outreach efforts are all about connecting with 

communities to make sure they know who we are 

and how we can help,” says Paul Geiger, chief of our 

Community Relations Unit. “We want to be better at 

our job and keep the public safer. The Spanish-language 

webpage certainly helps do that.”

Stay tuned for more interesting and useful content on FBI 

en español during 2013.

Two years ago this month, we enhanced our outreach to 

the Hispanic community in the U.S.—and beyond—by 

launching a Spanish-language webpage on www.fbi.gov.

Our goal—to help educate members of the Hispanic 

community about the FBI’s many roles and 

responsibilities in fighting crime...to enlist more 

support in locating fugitives and gathering tips on 

criminal activity...and to provide valuable information 

on how to keep from becoming a victim of fraud or 

other crimes.

So far, the site has been viewed more than 160,000 times. 

More importantly, by strategically syndicating content 

from the webpage to various online Spanish-language 

media outlets in the U.S., our regular stream of articles 

tailored to Hispanics reached a combined audience of 

more than 70 million people during 2012 alone.

Over the past two years, we have posted stories 

on a variety of topics of interest to the Hispanic 

community...as well as to the public at large. For 

example:

▪ In our latest article, we discussed human trafficking 

(January is National Slavery and Human Trafficking 

Prevention Month) with a focus on the assistance we 

offer to human trafficking victims.

▪ Last April, we warned about the increasing 

sophistication of the so-called “grandparent scam,” in 

which criminals can—using the Internet and social 
2013 The FBI Story 9

February 1, 2013

The Hostage 

Rescue Team

Part 1: 30 Years of

Service to the Nation

HRT members debrief after a training exercise at their facility

in Quantico, Virginia.

putting themselves in harm’s way to help safeguard the 

nation and to save lives.

“As an elite counterterrorism tactical team for law 

enforcement, the HRT is one of the best—if not the 

best—in the United States,” said Sean Joyce, deputy 

director of the FBI and former HRT operator. “They 

are elite because of their training,” he explained. “But 

they are FBI agents first and foremost, and they have 

the ability to perform special agent duties—whether 

it’s obtaining evidence or interviewing an individual—

anywhere in the world while being able to operate in all 

types of environments, no matter how inhospitable.”

Not surprisingly, it takes a certain kind of special agent 

to become an HRT operator. In its 30-year existence, 

fewer than 300 individuals have been selected to join 

the team. Those who make it possess remarkable 

physical and mental toughness. They may be capable of 

extraordinary individual effort, but they understand the 

team always comes first—even before their own personal 

needs. Identifying candidates who possess not only the 

necessary physical and tactical abilities but also the right 

combination of personality traits is an integral part of the 

team’s demanding selection process.

Part 2: Trying out for the team (page 12)

Last month marked the 30th anniversary of the FBI’s 

Hostage Rescue Team (HRT)—federal law enforcement’s 

only full-time counterterrorism unit—a highly trained 

group of special agents often called upon during the 

toughest times.

When needed, the team is prepared to deploy within 

four hours of notification to anywhere in the U.S. 

in response to terrorist incidents, hostage situations, 

and major criminal threats. Although the HRT has 

been tasked to fill a variety of roles throughout the 

years, its highest priority has always been to react to a 

major terrorist incident and to ensure the safe release of 

hostages.

“There is no greater mission we have than to save 

somebody’s life,” said Kevin Cornelius, a former HRT 

operator who now commands the team.

Although the HRT was originally conceived to provide 

a tactical response to terrorism, the team possesses 

capabilities that do not exist anywhere else in civilian 

law enforcement. Operators are able to fast-rope out 

of helicopters, parachute with full mission equipment, 

and conduct advanced SCUBA techniques. They are 

trained to be superior marksmen, proficient in a variety of 

breaching techniques—including explosives—and experts 

in close-quarter tactics. Each operator’s skill and training 

ensures that the HRT can launch assaults with speed, 

precision, and, if necessary, deadly force.

U.S. law enforcement relies on a tiered response to 

critical incidents such as a terrorist attack or hostage 

situation. First responders usually come from the local 

and state level and might include SWAT teams and crisis 

negotiators. If a situation cannot be resolved at that level, 

federal assets such as the HRT may be called in.

HRT operators also provide technical and tactical 

assistance to FBI field offices, which often leads to the 

apprehension of violent offenders. Most of the HRT’s 

operations in the U.S. occur as a result of detailed 

investigations conducted by special agents in the field.

Since the first generation of HRT operators were 

trained in 1983, team members have deployed 

domestically and around the globe nearly 800 times, 

Scan this QR code with your smartphone

to access related video and photos, or visit 

www.fbi.gov/hrtanniversary.
10 2013 The FBI Story

February 5, 2013

A Case of ‘Sextortion’

Cons Like ‘Bieber Ruse’

Targeted Minor Girls

they could to keep their reputations intact.”

In one wrenching case, revealed through transcripts read 

at Gunn’s sentencing hearing in January, a 13-year-old 

victim pleaded that she did not want to take her shirt 

off in front of a webcam. She told Gunn she had “a life, 

please do not ruin it,” before ultimately relenting to his 

demands.

To gain the girls’ trust, Gunn primarily used two ruses:

▪ In the “new kid ruse,” Gunn created a fake profile 

on Facebook and claimed in messages to minors that 

he was a new kid in town looking to make friends. 

Once he established a level of trust, he began making 

demands.

▪ In the “Justin Bieber ruse,” Gunn pretended to 

be the teen pop star on several interactive video 

chat services. When Gunn convinced girls he was 

the singer, he offered them free concert tickets or 

backstage passes in exchange for topless photos or 

webcam videos.

Gunn employed these tactics for more than two years, 

victimizing girls in at least a half-dozen states and 

Ireland. The case came to light in April 2011, when 

junior high school students in a small town in Alabama 

complained to local police about requests for sexually 

explicit pictures they received on Facebook. Separate 

police investigations in Mississippi and Louisiana 

uncovered strikingly similar details. Drawing from the 

police investigations, the FBI searched Gunn’s home, 

where a cellphone and laptop computer revealed the 

massive scope and novel ruses of Gunn’s extortion 

scheme.

In Gunn’s case, the scheme came to light only after 

kids and their parents reported his advances. Special 

Agent Doell said there may be more victims in the case 

who never came forward. And certainly there are more 

extortion artists like Gunn preying on kids’ natural 

naiveté.

“Kids live in a wired world,” Doell said. “They don’t think 

twice about taking a picture and sending it to someone. 

A Polaroid could only go so far. But on the Internet, it’s 

out there for the world.”

The basic framework of the extortionist’s scheme was 

as cold as it was calculated: contact a young girl on a 

social networking site using a fake identity, gain her 

trust, extract some highly personal information, and then 

threaten to expose her intimate exchanges if she doesn’t 

assent to escalating demands for sexually explicit pictures 

or videos.

The case of Christopher Patrick Gunn, 31, of 

Montgomery, Alabama, who was sentenced last month 

to 35 years in prison for producing child pornography 

through a massive online sextortion scheme, provides 

a glimpse of how modern-day confidence men 

are plying their trade against the most vulnerable 

and unsuspecting victims. By trolling social media 

networks and lurking in video chats, Gunn was able to 

reach out to hundreds of young girls and set his bait. In 

methodically scripted ruses, friendly conversations would 

turn personal, with Gunn asking girls about their bra 

sizes, their sexual histories, and other intimate details. If 

the girls sent pictures, Gunn demanded more revealing 

images. If they complied, he set the hook some more, 

threatening to destroy their reputations by publishing 

their compromising images, videos, and correspondence.

This is a common thread in sextortion schemes, say FBI 

special agents who investigate these cases.

“Once he started in, he got to know everything about the 

girls—their friends’ names, their schools, their parents’ 

names—it was like a script,” said Erik Doell, a special 

agent in the FBI’s Montgomery, Alabama office who 

investigated the Gunn case. “Once he got a picture, the 

girls would just go along with it. They would do whatever 
2013 The FBI Story 11

February 8, 2013

Amish BeardCutting Case

Ohio Residents Sentenced for 

Hate Crimes

“The FBI is committed to investigating hate crimes,” 

said Stephen Anthony, special agent in charge of our 

Cleveland Field Office, “including those motivated by 

religious bias—as in this case—or other areas protected 

by our civil rights statutes.”

Although the Amish attacks were brazen, victims were 

initially reluctant to come forward, in part because 

the Amish community is insulated from mainstream 

society. Ultimately, Sirohman said, the victims 

cooperated “because they didn’t want this to happen to 

other people.”

The FBI received “outstanding” assistance from local 

sheriff’s departments and the U.S. Attorney’s Office 

for the Northern District of Ohio, Sirohman said, and 

in November 2011, Mullet, members of his family, and 

other followers were arrested. Last September, they were 

convicted of hate crimes and other charges.

Sirohman had special praise for the victims in the case. 

“They were very brave,” he said. “In many cases they 

had to testify against their own children.” He was also 

gratified that the victims, who do not easily associate 

with those outside of their faith, recognized the help that 

the FBI and federal prosecutors were offering.

“They trusted us to do what was right,” Sirohman added, 

“and we weren’t going to let them down.”

Sixteen individuals were sentenced today for hate crimes 

involving attacks against Amish residents in Ohio—some 

carried out by the victims’ children—and the group’s 

leader received a 15-year prison term.

In response to a religious dispute among members 

of the Amish community, Samuel Mullet, Sr.—the 

66-year-old bishop of the Amish congregation in 

Bergholz, Ohio—directed his followers to forcibly cut 

the hair and beards of other members of the Amish 

faith.

Male and female victims, some elderly, were held against 

their will in their homes while scissors and horse shears 

were used to cut their hair and beards. Head and facial 

hair is religiously symbolic to the Amish—some of the 

male victims had been growing their beards for decades.

“These crimes were definitely religiously motivated,” said 

Michael Sirohman, the special agent in our Cleveland 

Field Office who investigated the case. Mullet and his 

Bergholz followers practiced a different kind of religion 

than other Amish communities, and Mullet believed 

those other communities were against him and were 

interfering with his authority. That was the underlying 

reason for the attacks, Sirohman said.

“Sam Mullet didn’t like to be crossed,” he explained, “and 

he was very good at manipulating his followers.” Mullet 

convinced the individuals who carried out the attacks 

that they were religiously permitted to do so, Sirohman 

added. “In some perverted way, they thought they were 

helping the victims by bringing them closer to God.”

Mullet organized five attacks between September and 

November 2011. Local authorities filed state charges 

against him and others after the initial incidents, but 

the assaults continued. The FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s 

Office were called in, Sirohman said, because the attacks 

were escalating and because “everyone realized there were 

bigger issues involved.”

Hate crimes are investigated under the FBI’s civil rights 

program, and the passage of the Matthew Shepard and 

James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009 gave 

the Bureau further authority to investigate such offenses.
12 2013 The FBI Story

February 12, 2013

Left: HRT “selectees” are distinguishable during selection only by 

number and the color of their clothes.

The Hostage 

Rescue Team

Part 2: The Crucible of Selection

selection. Being in peak physical condition is critical, 

but candidates must also perform well on firearms tests 

and during complex arrest scenarios. Equally important 

is showing good judgment, thinking on your feet, and 

being a team player—despite being sleep-deprived and 

physically drained.

“You can be the fastest person in the world, the 

strongest person in the world, or the smartest person 

in the world,” Joyce explained, “but if you’re not 

willing to be a part of the team, you don’t belong on 

HRT.”

In addition to being able to work with others, evaluators 

are looking for other core personality characteristics such 

as loyalty, leadership, and discipline. And during the 

two-week trial, selectees have no idea how they are doing.

“They get zero feedback,” Piser said. “No negative 

or positive. We give them a task, and it’s on them to 

perform. We tell them that all events are evaluated and 

to give it 100 percent.” That can be tough on certain 

personalities, he added. “They want that feedback, and 

we give them nothing.” It’s another way to test mental 

toughness.

Typically, about half of every class drops out for various 

reasons during the selection process. Even if a person is 

still standing at the end of two weeks, Piser said, that is 

no guarantee he will make the team. “Just surviving is 

not enough.”

Part 3: The real training begins (page 14)

FBI agents hoping to earn a spot on the Hostage Rescue 

Team—federal law enforcement’s lead counterterrorism 

tactical team—relinquish their names when they report 

for the grueling selection process held at Quantico, 

Virginia each year.

During two exhausting weeks of tests and drills 

that purposely induce physical and mental stress, 

candidates are known to their evaluators only as 

“selectees,” and the only thing that distinguishes them 

from one another is an identifying color and number 

worn on their clothes. It is all part of the process that 

helps evaluators choose the very best individuals for one 

of the most demanding—and rewarding—jobs in the FBI.

“The process is designed to identify individuals who will 

perform the best in a crisis situation,” said FBI Deputy 

Director Sean Joyce, a former HRT operator. “The point 

is to break you down to see how you perform under stress. 

When you don’t get a lot of sleep—sometimes going on 

one or two hours a day—over a period of time, it’s going 

to break you down pretty quickly.”

On the first day, candidates are roused well before dawn 

for physical fitness tests that include running, swimming, 

and stair-climbing with a 55-pound vest and 35-pound 

battering ram—all with little rest between activities. “The 

first day is the easy day,” said Special Agent John Piser, a 

former HRT operator who runs the selection process.

Punishing runs while carrying heavy gear, along with 

drills carried out in high places, cramped quarters, and 

other unforgiving circumstances are the norm during 
2013 The FBI Story 13

February 15, 2013

Crooked CEO 

Gets 50 Years

Stole $215 Million from

Investors

The $20 million headquarters of the now-bankrupt Peregrine

Financial Group in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

▪ He intercepted account verification forms from NFA 

and CFTC auditors mailed to the bank used by PFG. 

Wasendorf changed the address of the bank to a post 

office box that only he had access to; once the forms 

came into that post office box, he would mail back 

to the auditors a forged form—supposedly from the 

bank—that contained an inflated dollar amount of 

what was in the corresponding bank account.

What did Wasendorf do with the misappropriated 

funds? He created the appearance that PFG was 

legitimate and successful in order to ward off the 

suspicions of regulators and auditors. He also funded his 

own outside business interests—for example, he opened 

two restaurants in Cedar Falls. And finally, he lived quite 

luxuriously—he owned a private jet and a huge estate 

that included a million-dollar indoor swimming pool and 

a 1,000-bottle wine cellar.

The case began when the Blackhawk County Sheriff’s 

Office, first on the scene of Wasendorf’s attempted 

suicide, contacted the FBI after discovering notes 

left by the executive admitting his illegal deeds. The 

ensuing federal investigation—which involved multiple 

searches, reviews of thousands of electronic and paper 

documents, and numerous interviews—culminated in 

September 2012 with Wasendorf’s guilty plea.

Special thanks as well to our partners at the U.S. Postal 

Inspection Service and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the 

Northern District of Iowa for their assistance in this case.

He was a successful CEO of his own futures brokerage 

firm and a respected member of his community, creating 

jobs and supporting local charities.

Or so it seemed. For years, Russell Wasendorf, Sr.—as 

Acting U.S. Attorney Sean R. Berry of the Northern 

District of Iowa recently put it—was really a “con man 

who built a business on smoke and mirrors.”

It all fell apart in July 2012, when Wasendorf—after an 

unsuccessful suicide attempt—admitted stealing millions 

from more than 13,000 investors who had entrusted 

their hard-earned money to him and his company, the 

now-bankrupt Peregrine Financial Group (PFG), based in 

Cedar Falls, Iowa. Last month, Wasendorf was sentenced 

by a federal judge to 50 years in prison—the maximum 

term allowed by law—and ordered to pay restitution to 

his victims.

How it started. In the early 1990s, Wasendorf’s Peregrine 

partner pulled his money out of the operation, and 

Wasendorf didn’t have the funds to keep the company 

going. So he helped himself to at least $250,000 of 

Peregrine’s customer funds in accounts at an outside 

bank. To conceal the theft, he used a copy machine to 

fabricate a phony bank statement.

For the next 20 or so years, Wasendorf continued to steal 

from customer funds while his company incurred tens of 

millions of dollars in losses. He carried out this scheme 

through a series of complex actions designed to conceal 

his activities and the deteriorating state of the company. 

For instance:

▪ He maintained exclusive control of monthly bank 

statements by instructing PFG personnel to make sure 

they were delivered to him unopened. He then used 

a copy machine—and later, computer software—to 

create phony monthly statements in place of the real 

statements.

▪ He sent the phony statements to PFG’s accounting 

department, knowing they’d be used in various 

reports required by oversight bodies—the Commodity 

Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the 

National Futures Association (NFA).
14 2013 The FBI Story

February 19, 2013

Left: Live-fire close-quarter battle exercises in the HRT’s “shooting 

house” mimic real-world missions.

The Hostage 

Rescue Team

Part 3: Training for Every

Contingency

configurations so a variety of scenarios can be played 

out. As operators work together to effect a successful 

resolution, instructors view their movements from 

catwalks above.

“The HRT is federal law enforcement’s first-tier tactical 

team because of its advanced training and capabilities,” 

noted Special Agent Kevin Cornelius, a section chief and 

former operator who now commands the team. That’s 

the main difference between SWAT teams and the 

HRT. Whereas Bureau SWAT members train a few days 

each month—while maintaining their full-time jobs as 

investigators—HRT operators train full-time and have 

capabilities SWAT teams don’t possess, such as the ability 

to operate in extreme climates.

“When a crisis situation exceeds the capabilities of 

local and regional tactical teams,” Cornelius said, 

“then the HRT gets the call. Because of our extensive 

training, we are more prepared to address complex 

problems.”

After New Operator Training School, graduates join 

individual teams within the HRT. For the first year, they 

continue to develop their basic assault skills—but they 

must also specialize as breachers, communicators, or 

medics. The fast-paced culture is “very satisfying,” Piser 

said, but it’s not without sacrifice. Operators are often 

away from their families for extended periods and can be 

called away with little notice.

“The time away from home is difficult,” said Sean Joyce, 

a former HRT member who is now the FBI’s deputy 

director, “but that’s something operators and families 

learn to cope with.” He added that the extensive, 

continuous training HRT operators go through that keeps 

them from their personal lives is absolutely essential—

“because what you do in practice is what you’re going to 

do when the real game is on.”

Part 4: Night maneuvers—tracking a terrorist (page 18)

The handful of special agents who make it through the 

Hostage Rescue Team’s selection process have only just 

begun their journey to become HRT operators. Each 

new generation of recruits must undergo eight months of 

intensive training before joining the team and deploying 

on missions.

“As an HRT operator, you are going to be on the 

cutting edge of what the Bureau does tactically, both 

in the United States and overseas,” said Special Agent 

John Piser, a former operator who now runs the 

team’s selection and training programs. “That requires 

a substantial commitment—and a significant amount of 

training.”

Recruits relocate to be near the HRT’s headquarters in 

Quantico, Virginia. There, they begin New Operator 

Training School—a full-time job and a total immersion 

into the world of tactics, firearms, and teamwork.

Over the course of 32 weeks, new operators learn 

specialized skills—fast-roping out of helicopters and 

SCUBA diving, for example—and few are more critical 

than close-quarter battle (CQB). “How quickly we can 

secure a house with a credible threat inside might mean 

the difference between a hostage living or dying,” Piser 

said.

As new operators advance in tactical expertise, training 

drills become more complex. Live-fire CQB exercises in 

the HRT’s “shooting house” mimic real-world missions. 

The shooting house is a large, maze-like series of rubbercoated walls—the rubber absorbs bullets and prevents 

ricocheting—that can be arranged into different room 
2013 The FBI Story 15

February 22, 2013

Legal Attaché London

Then and Now

The FBI’s legal attaché office in London was in the U.S. Embassy 

building at 1 Grosvenor Square. 

all had been arrested by our British colleagues—one 

in 1998, one in 1999, and three in 2004. All fought 

extradition in the U.K. and, when that failed, all appealed 

to the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds 

that, among other things, U.S. sentences were too long. 

After they had exhausted all appeals, Legat London 

worked with the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service 

and the London Metropolitan Police Service’s SO15 

counterterrorism branch and extradition unit—not to 

mention with our U.S. military and federal partners—to 

coordinate the high-profile transport of Abu Hamza AlMasri, Adel Abdel Bary, and Khalid Al-Fawwaz to New 

York City and Syed Talha Ahsan and Babar Ahmad to 

New Haven, Connecticut.

We thank our partners in the U.K. every single 

day for sharing information that protects both of 

our countries and brings terrorists and criminals 

to justice. Michael S. Welch, assistant director of our 

International Operations Division, says it well: “In today’s 

era of asymmetrical threats, only the closest relationships 

among law enforcement and intelligence personnel and 

their most determined will to share intelligence can help 

all of us identify, disrupt, and prosecute international 

criminals and terrorists.”

Seventy years ago this coming Monday, Arthur M. 

Thurston was officially named legal attaché of the U.S. 

Embassy in wartime London. Three months earlier, on 

November 16, 1942, he had, at the invitation of U.S. 

Ambassador John Winant, opened the office for liaison 

purposes in the 1 Grosvenor Square embassy. Now, as 

“legat,” Thurston was already highly connected with his 

colleagues in MI-5 and MI-6.

It was a fearful time to be in London, but an 

enormously productive time as well. British intelligence 

had developed Ultra—which intercepted and later 

decoded radio and cable messages sent by the Nazis to 

their clandestine networks worldwide. Thurston was 

given access to the decrypted messages in January 1943 

and, under the codename Ostrich, forwarded intelligence 

to FBI Headquarters that related to possible German 

espionage in the United States. Ultimately, Ostrich would 

crucially assist our mandated intelligence operations in 

South America, control movement of double agents, and 

penetrate German intelligence. Postwar, there would be 

critical legat assistance and liaison in the Klaus Fuchs 

exposé. Even by 1951, when the office was staffed with a 

single agent and two clerks, Legat John Cimperman was 

putting in 11-plus hour days and had 235 open cases that 

were pending resolution. Gamely, he described that time 

as “an unusually light period.”

And so began the friendships and cooperative 

relationships between the FBI and British law 

enforcement and intelligence services that flourish

to this day.

Today, Legat London is staffed with Legal Attaché Scott 

Cruse, a deputy and five assistant legats, an intelligence 

analyst, and four office administrators. And guess what? 

They are still putting in 11-plus hour days. It is an 

incredibly busy and intense office, thanks to a world in 

turmoil.

Yesteryear’s threats of wartime and postwar espionage 

have given way to 21st century threats to national 

security—notably international terrorism, the FBI’s 

top priority. And without the help of our international 

partners, we could not be successful.

Consider the recent extradition of five alleged 

terrorists from Mildenhall Royal Air Force Base in 

the U.K. on October 5, 2012. Following U.S. charges, 
16 2013 The FBI Story

February 26, 2013

Left: An FBI agent at the scene of the 2008 bombing of a federal 

courthouse in San Diego.

Weapon of Mass 

Deception

Courthouse Bomber Receives 

55-Year Sentence

flying in all directions—over a block away and at least six 

stories into the air.

Although no one was injured in the blast, “we were very 

lucky this wasn’t a murder scene,” Zuccolotto said. “There 

was no reason to put nails in the bomb; the bomb by itself 

would have been enough for his scheme.”

After the explosion, there was an immediate response 

from local authorities and members of the FBI’s San 

Diego Field Office, including the Bureau’s Evidence 

Response Team and Joint Terrorism Task Force. Plenty of 

evidence was found at the scene, including surveillance 

video showing a person igniting the backpack.

A few days later, Love contacted the FBI through 

an attorney and said he would provide information 

about the crime in exchange for a $75,000 reward and 

leniency on criminal charges pending against him. He 

intended to provide false information, directly from him 

and from those he controlled.

“His actions were beyond callous,” Zuccolotto said. 

“Thinking of anybody else’s well being never crossed his 

mind. It was all about him making a buck or saving his 

skin.”

Love, 44, who had worked for the local water department 

for a decade but had recently been fired, was behind on 

his mortgage payments. He thought the reward money 

would solve all his problems.

“He really thought he could get away with it,” Zuccolotto 

said. But his story soon fell apart, and two of his 

accomplices—including his former girlfriend—later 

became cooperating witnesses in the case against him. 

Those two each received 10-year sentences, and another 

accomplice was sentenced to 11 years.

Zuccolotto credits local authorities; the Bureau of 

Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the United 

States Attorney’s Office; the FBI Laboratory; and local, 

state, and federal members of the Joint Terrorism Task 

Force for bringing the case to a successful conclusion. 

“Everybody worked well together,” he said. “We needed to 

get this guy off the streets.”

When the bomb went off in the middle of the night 

at the San Diego federal courthouse in May 2008, the 

message seemed clear: This was an act of terror—or 

possibly revenge. At the time, no one would have guessed 

that the real motive was all about money.

The strange case of the courthouse bombing came to 

a close recently when the last defendant, Donny Love, 

Sr.—the mastermind of the operation—was sentenced 

to 55 years in prison for using a weapon of mass 

destruction and other charges.

Love persuaded his sometime girlfriend and two others 

who trusted him and depended on him for drugs to carry 

out the bombing. He then planned to contact authorities 

with information about the crime so he could collect a 

reward.

“The plot seems so odd and bizarre,” said Special Agent 

Justin Zuccolotto, who investigated the case, “but you 

can begin to understand it when you understand Love’s 

ability to control and manipulate the people around him. 

His actions showed that he was a predator who didn’t care 

about anyone but himself.”

The explosive device set in the entrance to the Edward J. 

Schwartz Federal Courthouse consisted of three powerful 

pipe bombs placed inside a backpack that was also filled 

with 110 roofing nails. When it exploded, the bomb blew 

out the courthouse doors and sent shrapnel and nails 
2013 The FBI Story 17

February 28, 2013

The Cyber Threat

Planning for the Way Ahead

 Director Mueller speaks to cyber security professionals in

San Francisco. 

Mueller also noted the Bureau’s cyber outreach efforts 

to private industry. The Domestic Security Alliance 

Council, for instance, includes chief security officers from 

more than 200 companies, representing every critical 

infrastructure and business sector. InfraGard, an alliance 

between the FBI and industry, has grown from a single 

chapter in 1996 to 88 chapters today with nearly 55,000 

members nationwide. And just last week, the FBI held the 

first session of the National Cyber Executive Institute, a 

three-day seminar to train leading industry executives on 

cyber threat awareness and information sharing.

“As noteworthy as these outreach programs may be, 

we must do more,” Mueller said. “We must build on 

these initiatives to expand the channels of information 

sharing and collaboration.”

He added, “For two decades, corporate cyber security has 

focused principally on reducing vulnerabilities. These are 

worthwhile efforts, but they cannot fully eliminate our 

vulnerabilities. We must identify and deter the persons 

behind those computer keyboards. And once we identify 

them—be they state actors, organized criminal groups, or 

18-year-old hackers—we must devise a response that is 

effective, not just against that specific attack, but for all 

similar illegal activity.”

“We need to abandon the belief that better defenses alone 

will be sufficient,” Mueller said. “Instead of just building 

better defenses, we must build better relationships. If we 

do these things, and if we bring to these tasks the sense 

of urgency that this threat demands,” he added, “I am 

confident that we can and will defeat cyber threats, now 

and in the years to come.”

Denial of service attacks, network intrusions, statesponsored hackers bent on compromising our national 

security: The cyber threat is growing, and in response, 

said FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, the Bureau must 

continue to strengthen its partnerships with other 

government agencies and private industry—and take the 

fight to the criminals.

“Network intrusions pose urgent threats to our 

national security and to our economy,” Mueller told a 

group of cyber security professionals in San Francisco 

today. “If we are to confront these threats successfully,” 

he explained, “we must adopt a unified approach” that 

promotes partnerships and intelligence sharing—in 

the same way we responded to terrorism after the 9/11 

attacks.

The FBI learned after 9/11 that “our mission was to use 

our skills and resources to identify terrorist threats and to 

find ways of disrupting those threats,” Mueller said. “This 

has been the mindset at the heart of every terrorism 

investigation since then, and it must be true of every case 

in the cyber arena as well.”

Partnerships that ensure the seamless flow of intelligence 

are critical in the fight against cyber crime, he explained. 

Within government, the National Cyber Investigative 

Joint Task Force, which comprises 19 separate agencies, 

serves as a focal point for cyber threat information. But 

private industry—a major victim of cyber intrusions—

must also be “an essential partner,” Mueller said, pointing 

to several successful initiatives.

The National Cyber Forensics and Training Alliance, 

for example, is a model for collaboration between private 

industry and law enforcement. The Pittsburgh-based 

organization includes more than 80 industry partners—

from financial services, telecommunications, retail, and 

manufacturing, among other fields—who work with 

federal and international partners to provide real-time 

threat intelligence.

Another example is the Enduring Security Framework, 

a group that includes leaders from the private sector 

and the federal government who analyze current—

and potential—threats related to denial of service 

attacks, malware, and emerging software and hardware 

vulnerabilities.
18 2013 The FBI Story

March 4, 2013

Left: HRT operators using night-vision gear approach a suspect’s 

home during a night-training exercise.

The Hostage 

Rescue Team

Part 4: An Exercise in Terror

At the designated staging area, with the team’s 

assaulters and snipers in full gear—including nightvision goggles to see in the dark—they walked with 

stealth through the woods and established a perimeter 

around the subject’s residence (a vacant building 

loaned to the Bureau by a local sheriff’s department).

When they were all in place, the operation began.

The team had a solid plan for arresting the subject at 

his residence, but before the evening was over, operators 

would have to visit three different locations around the 

area to find and apprehend their target. Throughout the 

exercise, several wrinkles were thrown at the operators 

and each required a new contingency plan and significant 

coordination among the team.

The subject was overheard by a co-worker discussing 

five explosive devices he had secretly placed around the 

nation’s capital. Intelligence suggested that the subject’s 

laptop—which never left his side—was a triggering 

device that could be activated in a matter of seconds. The 

Hostage Rescue Team’s mission: Capture the subject and 

secure his computer before he detonated the bombs.

The operation order was received at the HRT 

headquarters in Quantico, Virginia at 4:30 p.m., and 

the HRT Blue Operational Unit was assembled shortly 

thereafter. In less than two hours, they would deploy to 

the subject’s farm in rural Virginia. Although everyone in 

the room knew this was a training exercise, the team was 

serious and attentive.

“We make these training scenarios as real as possible,” 

said the HRT Blue Unit senior team leader. “This is how 

we maintain our skills.” Tactical training operations are 

so realistic that scenarios are often drawn from real cases, 

and role players may change the scenario on the fly to 

force operators to think on their feet—just the way it 

happens on actual missions.

During the Blue Unit’s initial briefing, operators were 

shown the subject’s picture, along with aerial photos 

and topographical maps of the target location; they also 

received details about the subject’s “pattern of life.”

On a real mission, the team would rely on the support of 

intelligence analysts, communications experts, and others 

to get the job done. As part of the FBI’s Critical Incident 

Response Group, the HRT also has other resources at its 

disposal, such as crisis negotiators.

An HRT operator consults a map during a training exercise. 

“As we get new intelligence, the operation plan changes 

and the team adapts,” one team leader said. “In a realworld situation, you have to make decisions quickly—and 

usually under difficult circumstances.”

That’s why when HRT operators are not in mission status, 

they train constantly in the core areas of tactics, firearms, 

and physical fitness while waiting to deploy. For the HRT 

Blue Unit, this exercise was just another day at the office.

By 11 p.m., with the mission accomplished, the team was 

conducting an after-action briefing about what worked 

in tonight’s operation and what could be improved. In a 

few minutes, they would head back to Quantico and stow 

their gear—until tomorrow.

Part 5: Held to a higher standard (page 19)
2013 The FBI Story 19

March 8, 2013

HRT operators participate in an urban assault training exercise.

The Hostage 

Rescue Team

Part 5: Held to a Higher

Standard

Three decades later, the team has proven its worth 

during hundreds of high-risk missions in every corner 

of the world—from the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings 

in East Africa to deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan 

and the arrests of Top Ten fugitives and the D.C. 

snipers. They have achieved that success—through 27 

generations of operators—because of the HRT’s rigorous 

selection process and the individuals who have what it 

takes to make the team.

“We were always aware that we were being held to a 

higher standard, both professionally and personally,” said 

Atherton, who spent 16 years as an operator and another 

decade working in the HRT program. “It’s no different for 

today’s operators.”

Going back to that first selection, Atherton recalled, 

“When you saw the caliber of person that was there 

with you, the dedication that each of them had, you just 

wanted to do that much better yourself. If you scratch the 

surface of anyone who has ever been on the team,” he 

added, “you are going to find the same personality traits 

and the same qualities and motivations.”

Part 6: A harrowing mission in the Gulf of Aden (page 25)

Jaime Atherton was a 30-year-old former Marine and 

Vietnam veteran when he became an FBI agent in 

1976. He joined the SWAT team in our San Francisco 

office, and later, after a transfer to the FBI Laboratory’s 

explosives unit in Quantico, Virginia, he heard about a 

brand new team that was forming—the Hostage Rescue 

Team.

The 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles were 

approaching, and the federal government realized it 

needed a non-military counterterrorism tactical team to 

help safeguard the games—and to prevent a tragedy like 

the one that occurred at the Munich Olympics in 1972, 

when Palestinian gunmen took 11 Israeli athletes hostage 

and later murdered them. The responsibility for that new 

tactical team was given to the FBI, and Atherton (now 

retired) wanted to be a part of it.

“It appealed to me,” he said, “the challenge that was 

involved, the chance to be a part of something new, 

and the ability to make a difference—that’s why I 

joined the Bureau.”

Atherton’s bomb tech background in the Marines 

and the FBI made him well-suited for a new explosive 

breaching capability the HRT wanted to use, but first he 

had to survive the selection process, an arduous physical 

and mental test that was like nothing he had ever 

experienced.

For one thing, candidates didn’t know what stressful 

endurance test or mental challenge was coming next. 

And they received no feedback on how they were doing. 

“You had no idea what the standards were or how you 

were being judged,” he recalled. “That played on your 

mind.”

Even after he made the team, becoming one of the 

Bureau’s 50 first-generation HRT operators, no one 

was certain the concept of a full-time tactical team 

would succeed. “You’ve got to remember that in 1983 

when it started, there were a lot of people who said, ‘As 

soon as the Olympics are over, you guys are going to be 

reassigned.’”
20 2013 The FBI Story

March 12, 2013

Organized Retail Theft

Major Middle Eastern Crime 

Ring Dismantled

The scheme. Danhach and others recruited “boosters”—

individuals who lifted the merchandise from pharmacies 

and retailers—from among undocumented Mexican, 

Central American, and South American aliens in the 

United States. Booster crews traveled around Texas and 

other states and hit various businesses, often in cars 

rented by Danhach or his associates. For their efforts, 

they’d receive a small percentage of the actual value of 

the stolen property...always in cash so there would be no 

paper trail.

The boosters then shipped the merchandise back to 

Danhach’s Houston warehouse using phony accounts 

with bogus business names, e-mail addresses, and credit 

cards set up by Danhach and others. These shipping 

companies were also victimized—they rarely, if ever, got 

paid.

The boosters shipped the stolen goods in case they were 

ever pulled over by law enforcement during routine 

traffic stops while they were driving back to Texas (that 

happened once, and Danhach wanted to make sure it 

never happened again).

Once the stolen merchandise was in Danhach’s 

possession, he would have his people remove anti-theft 

devices and store stickers, and then he would once 

again—using phony business accounts—ship the goods to 

various wholesalers, who would put the stolen goods back 

into circulation.

In March 2012, a search warrant for Danhach’s 

Houston warehouse turned up many interesting items:

among them, more than $300,000 worth of stolen overthe-counter medications, shampoos, and baby formula, 

along with financial ledgers showing that from August 

2011 to January 2012 alone, Danhach paid $1.8 million 

for stolen merchandise and sold it for $2.8 million for a 

net profit of $1 million.

Industry experts say organized retail crimes like this 

cost the U.S. about $30 billion a year. While that 

estimate includes other crimes like credit card fraud, gift 

card fraud, and price tag switching, the FBI generally 

focuses on the most significant retail theft cases involving 

the interstate transportation of stolen property.

When it comes to shoplifting, this was a serious and 

sophisticated operation.

It involved members of a criminal group waltzing into 

major U.S. retail stores and pharmacies and brazenly 

walking out with stolen products of all kinds, from 

medicine and baby formula to health and beauty supplies. 

Those products were then repackaged and sold at rock 

bottom prices to various wholesalers, who, in some cases, 

sold them right back to the companies they had been 

stolen from.

The criminal bottom line: An estimated $10 million 

worth of products were swiped every year from 2008 to 

2012. To make matters worse, many of the goods—some 

possibly compromised by being stored and shipped 

under improper conditions and some sold past their 

expiration dates—eventually ended up in the hands of an 

unsuspecting public.

It all came to an end thanks to a multi-agency 

investigation by the FBI, the Houston Police 

Department, and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, 

with the help of victim merchants. Earlier this month, 

one of the highest-ranking and most prolific fences in this 

Middle Eastern crime ring was convicted in federal court. 

Charges against other group members are pending.

Sameh Khaled Danhach, a native of Lebanon and a legal 

permanent resident of the U.S., headed up SKD Trading, 

Inc. and Lifetime Wholesale, Inc., both shell companies 

located in Houston that allowed Danhach and his 

conspirators to carry out their illegal activities.
2013 The FBI Story 21

March 14, 2013

New Top Ten Fugitive

Help Us Find a Murderer

“Elevating Rivera Gracias to the Top Ten list sends a 

message,” said Special Agent Niedringhaus. “No matter 

where you are as a fugitive—in the U.S. or anywhere in 

the world—we are coming after you.”

He added, “The FBI has put significant resources into 

fighting MS-13, and our gang task force works closely 

with our international partners to gather intelligence 

to help dismantle this transnational group. I think 

our chances of catching Rivera Gracias are excellent, 

especially with the substantial reward being offered.”

We need your help: If you have any information 

concerning the whereabouts of Rivera Gracias, please 

contact the FBI’s Denver Field Office at 303-629-7171 or 

your nearest law enforcement agency or U.S. Embassy or 

Consulate. You can also submit a tip online.

Since its creation in 1950—63 years ago today—498 

fugitives have been on the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives 

list and 467 have been apprehended or located, 154 of 

them as a result of citizen cooperation.

03/27/13 Update: Edwin Ernesto Rivera Gracias was taken 

into custody in El Salvador and transferred to authorities in 

Denver, Colorado.

Edwin Ernesto Rivera Gracias, wanted for the murder of a 

69-year-old Colorado man who was dumped on the side of 

the road after being brutally beaten and stabbed, has been 

named to the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

A reward of up to $100,000 is being offered for 

information leading directly to the arrest of Rivera 

Gracias, who is a member of the violent Mara 

Salvatrucha gang—MS-13—and is believed to be in El 

Salvador.

“Today we are asking for media and public assistance in 

bringing this dangerous fugitive to justice,” said James 

Yacone, special agent in charge of our Denver Field 

Office.

Special Agent Phil Niedringhaus, who leads the FBI’s 

violent crimes squad in Denver, noted, “MS-13 is one of 

the most violent gangs in the United States, and Rivera 

Gracias appears to have embraced that lifestyle.”

The fugitive, a Salvadoran national, is approximately 29 

to 33 years old with brown hair and brown eyes. He is 

5’10” tall, weighs about 170 pounds, and has a variety of 

tattoos, including “MS-13” across his back, “LA” on his 

right forearm, and “Nena” on his left hand.

The murder he is charged with occurred in August 2011. 

The victim—a long-time family acquaintance of Rivera 

Gracias’ teenage girlfriend—was choked, beaten, and 

stabbed. His body was then dumped in the mountains 

outside of Denver, where it was later discovered by a 

bicyclist.

The investigation soon focused on Rivera Gracias and 

accomplices, including his girlfriend, explained Special 

Agent Russ Humphrey, a member of the FBI’s Rocky 

Mountain Safe Streets Task Force, who worked the case. 

“The murder was vicious,” Humphrey said.

Rivera Gracias fled from Denver to Los Angeles 

and is now believed to be in his native El Salvador.

Intelligence analysts with our MS-13 National Gang Task 

Force helped to positively identify Rivera Gracias, who 

also goes by the names Ernest Rivera and Edwin Rivera.

Rivera Gracias has ties to other MS-13 gang members in 

Colorado, Los Angeles, and El Salvador and may attempt 

to gain entry to the U.S. using fraudulent identification. 

He may also visit Mexico and Guatemala.
22 2013 The FBI Story

March 15, 2013

Left: Cartha “Deke” DeLoach, center, joins FBI Director J. Edgar 

Hoover and Roy Moore, special agent in charge of the Jackson Field 

Office, during a ceremony in Jackson, Mississippi on July 10, 1964.

Remembering 

‘Deke’ DeLoach

Trusted Adviser to J. Edgar 

Hoover Dies at 92

Indeed, it was DeLoach who in 1963 served as the 

Bureau’s link to President Lyndon Johnson’s White House 

after the Kennedy assassination. In 1964, when three civil 

rights workers went missing in Mississippi, the president 

called him almost daily for case updates. It was DeLoach 

who personally called Johnson to tell him the bodies had 

been found. In an oral history recorded in 1991, DeLoach 

recalled traveling down to Mississippi with Hoover 

and Tolson and experiencing firsthand the challenging 

climate facing investigators.

“FBI agents were shouldered off the sidewalk, refused 

food in restaurants, a Klansman put rattlesnakes down on 

the floor of the driver’s seat of an agent’s car,” DeLoach 

recalled. “The FBI took a lot of abuse; they worked 

ungodly amounts of overtime. I was with them down 

there part of the time; I know.”

DeLoach was the last of the FBI’s senior leaders 

from the turbulent civil rights era. He was a principal 

supervisor in the investigation of the murdered civil 

rights workers—the Mississippi Burning case. He also 

supervised the hunt for James Earl Ray after Ray killed

Dr. King in 1968.

“The FBI was involved at the very center of the civil 

rights struggle,” said FBI Historian Dr. John Fox, “and 

Deke DeLoach was at the very center of the FBI.”

In an interview last June with the Center for Intelligence 

and Security Studies, DeLoach said the FBI helped turn 

the tide against the Klan and its followers. “Eventually 

I think the good work of the FBI and the Department 

of Justice...caused the sympathizers’ beliefs to wane and 

recognize this is not a good way of life,” DeLoach said.

DeLoach served the FBI for 28 years—the last five as a 

key adviser to Hoover. After retiring, he went to work for 

private industry and in 1995 wrote a book titled Hoover’s 

FBI: The Inside Story by Hoover’s Trusted Lieutenant.

A longtime resident of Hilton Head Island, South 

Carolina, DeLoach received the state’s highest civilian 

honor for his years of service to the town and his home 

state.

Special Agent Cartha “Deke” DeLoach, a trusted 

adviser to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover who oversaw the 

investigation into the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther 

King, Jr. and served as the Bureau’s liaison to President 

Lyndon B. Johnson after John F. Kennedy’s assassination 

in 1963, died Wednesday evening in South Carolina. He 

was 92.

The former assistant to the Director, who was third 

in command at the FBI—after Hoover and Associate 

Director Clyde Tolson—until retiring in 1970, joined the 

Bureau as a clerk in August 1942 in what was then the 

Identification Division. Four months later, he became a 

special agent. Over the course of his career, he worked 

in the Norfolk and Cleveland Field Offices. He also 

held a number of leadership positions at Headquarters, 

including assistant director of the Crime Records Division 

from 1959 to 1965, where he pushed to establish the 

National Crime Information Center, or NCIC, which 

launched in 1967. His tenure at the FBI saw major shifts 

in the Bureau’s priorities, from preventing saboteurs and 

espionage during World War II to battling the Ku Klux 

Klan in the late 50s and early 60s to investigating major 

civil rights cases.

“Deke’s commitment to the FBI and to the American 

people at large was a hallmark of his life,” FBI 

Director Robert S. Mueller said in a statement.

“We will remember him as a dedicated special agent and 

a committed public servant—one who upheld the highest 

ideals of the FBI.”
2013 The FBI Story 23

March 18, 2013

The Gardner 

Museum Theft

Reward Offered for

Return of Artwork

An empty frame in the Dutch Room of the Gardner Museum, where 

Rembrandt’s The Storm on the Sea of Galilee and A Lady and

Gentleman in Black once hung.

an attorney,” Amore said. “There is no shortage of ways 

to get information to us. We simply want to recover our 

paintings and move forward. This is the 23rd anniversary 

of the robbery,” he said. “It’s time for these paintings to 

come home.”

We need your help: If you have information about the 

missing Gardner Museum artwork, you can contact the 

FBI’s hotline at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip on 

our website. All information will be held in the strictest 

confidence.

Today, the FBI—along with Boston’s Isabella Stewart 

Gardner Museum and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 

Massachusetts—asked for the public’s help in recovering 

artwork stolen from the museum more than two decades 

ago in what remains the largest property crime in U.S. 

history.

At a press conference this afternoon in Boston on the 

23rd anniversary of the theft, officials hoped to get 

the attention of those who might have or know the 

whereabouts of the 13 stolen works of art—including 

rare paintings by Rembrandt and Vermeer—by 

publicly restating a $5 million reward.

“Today, we are pleased to announce that the FBI has 

made significant investigative progress in the search 

for the stolen art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner 

Museum,” said Richard DesLauriers, special agent 

in charge of the FBI’s Boston Field Office. “We’ve 

determined in the years after the theft that the art was 

transported to the Connecticut and Philadelphia regions. 

But we haven’t identified where the art is right now, and 

that’s why we are asking the public for help.”

“With these considerable developments in the 

investigation over the last couple of years,” said Special 

Agent Geoff Kelly, who heads the FBI investigation, “it’s 

likely over time someone has seen the art hanging on 

a wall, placed above a mantel, or stored in an attic. We 

want that person to call the FBI.”

Anthony Amore, the Gardner Museum’s chief of 

security, explained that the museum is offering a $5 

million reward “for information that leads directly 

to the recovery of all of our items in good condition. 

What that means is that you don’t have to hand us the 

paintings to be eligible for the reward.” Amore added, 

“We hope that through this type of public campaign, 

people will see how earnest we are in our attempts to pay 

this reward and make our institution whole.”

Officials stressed that anyone with information about the 

artwork can contact the FBI, the museum, or the U.S. 

Attorney’s Office directly or through a third party. “An 

individual who wishes to protect his or her identity can go 

through an attorney and the reward can be paid through 

Scan this QR code with your smartphone

to access related videos and photos, or visit 

www.fbi.gov/gardner.
24 2013 The FBI Story

March 25, 2013

Left: A single-page March 22, 1950 memo by Guy Hottel, special 

agent in charge of the Washington Field Office, regarding UFOs is 

the most viewed document in the FBI Vault, our online repository of 

public records.

UFOs or No?

The Guy Hottel Memo

That might have been the end of this particular story, just 

another informational dead end in the FBI files. But when 

we launched the Vault in April 2011, some media outlets 

noticed the Hottel memo and erroneously reported that 

the FBI had posted proof of a UFO crash at Roswell, New 

Mexico and the recovery of wreckage and alien corpses. 

The resulting stories went viral, and traffic to the new 

Vault soared.

So what’s the real story? A few facts to keep in mind:

First, the Hottel memo isn’t new. It was first released 

publicly in the late 1970s and had been posted on the FBI 

website for several years prior to the launch of the Vault.

Second, the Hottel memo is dated nearly three years after 

the infamous events in Roswell in July 1947. There is no 

reason to believe the two are connected. The FBI file on 

Roswell (another popular page) is posted elsewhere on the 

Vault.

Third, as noted in an earlier story, the FBI has only 

occasionally been involved in investigating reports of 

UFOs and extraterrestrials. For a few years after the 

Roswell incident, Director Hoover did order his agents—

at the request of the Air Force—to verify any UFO 

sightings. That practice ended in July 1950, four months 

after the Hottel memo, suggesting that our Washington 

Field Office didn’t think enough of that flying saucer 

story to look into it.

Finally, the Hottel memo does not prove the existence of 

UFOs; it is simply a second- or third-hand claim that we 

never investigated. Some people believe the memo repeats 

a hoax that was circulating at that time, but the Bureau’s 

files have no information to verify that theory.

Sorry, no smoking gun on UFOs. The mystery remains...

It’s the most popular file in the FBI Vault—our hightech electronic reading room housing various Bureau 

records released under the Freedom of Information Act. 

Over the past two years, this file has been viewed nearly 

a million times. Yet, it is only a single page, relaying an 

unconfirmed report that the FBI never even followed up 

on.

The file in question is a memo dated March 22, 1950—63 

years ago last week. It was authored by Guy Hottel, then 

head of our field office in Washington, D.C. Like all 

memos to FBI Headquarters at that time, it was addressed 

to Director J. Edgar Hoover and recorded and indexed in 

FBI records.

The subject of the memo was anything but ordinary.

It related a story told to one of our agents by a third party 

who said an Air Force investigator had reported that 

three “flying saucers” were recovered in New Mexico. 

The memo provided the following detail:

“They [the saucers] were described as being circular 

in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet 

in diameter. Each one was occupied by three bodies 

of human shape but only three feet tall, dressed 

in metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body 

was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout 

suits used by speed fliers and test pilots.”

After relaying an informant’s claim that the saucers had 

been found because the government’s “high-powered 

radar” in the area had interfered with “the controlling 

mechanism of the saucers,” the memo ends simply by 

saying that “[n]o further evaluation was attempted” 

concerning the matter by the FBI agent.
2013 The FBI Story 25

Satellite view of Somalia and the Indian Ocean. The Gulf of Aden and 

Yemen are seen to the north.

March 27, 2013

The Hostage 

Rescue Team

Part 6: Mission in the

Gulf of Aden

Seeing small-arms fire erupting from the cabin of 

the Quest, Navy personnel immediately launched an 

emergency assault against the pirates, but it was too 

late for the hostages.

An HRT operator followed the initial assault team and 

helped secure the yacht and detain the surviving pirates. 

Later, our agents began to process the crime scene.

“It was standard FBI crime-scene processing,” the 

HRT operator explained. “We began photographing 

and logging evidence, and we were able to provide a 

substantial amount of material to our New York Evidence 

Response Team when they arrived later in Djibouti, 

where the Quest had been towed.”

That evidence would be significant in federal court in 

Norfolk, Virginia, where multiple Somali pirates have 

since pled guilty to piracy and murder and received life 

terms in U.S. prison.

“That outcome was extremely gratifying,” the HRT 

operator said of the hijackers’ sentences. “In a difficult 

environment, we were able to do what agents are 

supposed to do, which is to bring criminals to justice.”

Early one morning in Nairobi, Kenya, information 

began flowing into the FBI’s legal attaché office there 

concerning the hijacking of a private yacht with four 

American passengers on board in the Gulf of Aden—

perhaps the most pirated body of water in the world.

A Hostage Rescue Team operator temporarily 

stationed in Nairobi mobilized immediately—within 

hours, he was on his way to the scene off the coast of 

Somalia. Simultaneously, a crisis negotiator and former 

HRT operator was dispatched to a Navy destroyer that 

was shadowing the hijacked S/V Quest.

Events that unfolded over the next days were tragic—

the Americans aboard the 54-foot pleasure boat were 

murdered by the armed Somali pirates—but the work of 

the HRT operators and other FBI agents helped make 

certain that those responsible for the crime were brought 

to justice, including a Somali co-conspirator who was not 

among the 19 hijackers on the vessel.

The case serves as a sobering reminder of the value HRT 

operators and other FBI personnel add to U.S. military 

and international law enforcement missions around the 

globe in the fight against crime and terrorism.

“HRT operators possess the tactical skills that allow 

them to integrate with entities like the Department of 

Defense when there is a crime scene in a non-permissive 

environment,” explained one of the operators who 

responded to the Quest hijacking in February 2011. 

“But they are also experienced investigators. Having an 

FBI agent on the scene was a huge benefit,” he added, 

“because it allowed us to protect the integrity of the crime 

scene, to collect evidence, and to present that evidence in 

court.”

The pirates were attempting to sail the Quest and the 

hostages back to Somalia when they were overtaken by 

Navy warships. Military negotiators tried to secure the 

hostages’ release, but, according to court documents, the 

pirates said they would not comply. Some of the pirates 

began discussing killing hostages to get the U.S. boats 

to retreat. A rocket-propelled grenade was launched 

against a Navy ship as a warning shot. At the same 

time, hijackers guarding the hostages began firing their 

weapons.
26 2013 The FBI Story

April 2, 2013

Can You Crack a Code?

Try Your Hand at Cryptanalysis

The cryptanalysts in our FBI Laboratory are pros at 

code-cracking...but it has been a few years since we have 

challenged you to give it a go.

We’ve done it a bit differently this time around, creating 

our first dot code. Good luck!

To learn more about the types of ciphers and codes 

that terrorists, spies, and criminals use to conceal 

their communications, see the article “Analysis of 

Criminal Codes and Ciphers” from our Forensic Science 

Communications publication. You can also read about 

famous cases over the years in the article, “Code Breaking 

in Law Enforcement: A 400-Year History.”

To see the answer, visit www.fbi.gov/crackthecode.
2013 The FBI Story 27

April 5, 2013

The Best and Brightest

FBI Presents Director’s

Community Leadership Awards

predominantly Hispanic neighborhood known for 

gang activity. The center provides a safe place for 

children to play, teaches English to adult immigrants, 

and offers affordable day care for working parents.

▪ In Memphis, Julaine Harris, while working for 

corporate and non-profit organizations, has spent 

years advocating programs that focus on reducing 

gang activities, protecting children from domestic 

violence, and providing affordable housing for lowincome families.

▪ In Minneapolis, Ka Joog—a Somali American youth 

organization—encourages young people to stay away 

from illegal drugs, violence, radicalization, and other 

negative influences while learning to assimilate 

into American society. The group also hosts regular 

seminars with members of the community and law 

enforcement.

▪ In San Juan, Basta Ya Puerto Rico is an

anti-violence non-profit organization. Among its 

accomplishments, the group created an application 

for smart phones that helps citizens report crime to 

police and developed “safety zone” areas with the 

combined resources of government, business, and 

community.

▪ In Washington, D.C., Humera Khan, a dedicated 

advocate for American Muslims, is the founder of 

Mueflehun, a research organization that promotes 

service-minded communities and justice. Khan’s 

organization offers recommendations to multiple 

government agencies about countering homegrown 

terrorism and violent extremism.

Congratulations to all of our award recipients, who we 

hope will inspire a brand new generation of community 

leaders.

Throughout the year, dedicated and selfless individuals 

and organizations make extraordinary contributions to 

their communities across the United States. And every 

year, the FBI honors the very best among them with its 

Director’s Community Leadership Award.

Each FBI field office selects one individual or organization 

for the award, and each award recipient is publicly 

recognized at the local level. At a later date, all winners 

are brought to FBI Headquarters to be presented 

with their award by the FBI Director. And that’s just 

what happened today, when the nearly 60 Director’s 

Community Leadership Award recipients from 2012 were 

presented with their award by Director Robert Mueller 

during a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

The award recipients come from different backgrounds, 

different professional fields, and different parts of the 

country, and the issues they choose to focus on vary 

greatly. But they all have the same motivation—a 

desire to reach out to those in need and make their 

communities a safer place to live.

Speaking to the honorees at today’s ceremony, Director 

Mueller said, “You [all] share the same vision for our 

nation’s future—one of hope, peace, and justice. You also 

share a willingness to lead—a willingness to step up and 

step forward—when countless others instead choose to 

take a back seat.”

Here are just a few examples of how one individual or 

organization can make a difference:

▪ In Atlanta, Soumaya Khalifa founded the Islamic 

Speakers Bureau to educate those unfamiliar with the 

Islamic faith and provide insight into how Muslim 

Americans live their daily lives. She often presents 

training to students, business executives, and military 

and law enforcement personnel.

▪ In Birmingham, the non-profit Prescott House, 

a children’s advocacy center, works with federal, 

state, and local law enforcement to conduct forensic 

interviews of children who may have witnessed a 

violent crime or been the victim of sexual abuse, 

child pornography, or severe neglect.

▪ In Buffalo, Nestor Hernandez is the former director 

of the Belle Center, a community center in a 
28 2013 The FBI Story

April 9, 2013

Rooting Out Corruption

A Look Back at the

Jefferson Case

Our investigation uncovered at least 11 distinct bribery 

schemes that involved Jefferson leading official business 

delegations to Africa, corresponding with U.S. and 

foreign government officials on congressional letterhead, 

and using some of his own staffers—unbeknownst to 

them—to promote the bribe-paying businesses.

In addition to damaging recorded conversations between 

Jefferson and our cooperating witness, his trial also 

featured more than 45 witnesses, including a dozen U.S. 

government officials he tried to influence to get favorable 

treatment for the businesses promising him bribes. He 

was convicted in August 2009 and ultimately sentenced 

to 13 years in prison. Jefferson appealed several times, 

but last November, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his 

petition to review his conviction.

Like many of our corruption cases, our investigation of 

Jefferson involved the use of sophisticated techniques

like cooperating witnesses, consensual monitoring, courtauthorized electronic surveillance, video surveillance, and 

analysis of financial records...all capabilities we’ve used 

against organized crime, sophisticated financial fraud 

rings, international drug cartels, and more. Because of 

our experience, our tools and techniques, our resources 

and reach, and our ability and authority, the FBI has a 

singular charge to investigate and root out corruption at 

all levels of government.

FBI Agent Tim Thibault, who worked the case out of 

our Washington Field Office, stressed the importance 

of a cooperating witness—a Virginia businesswoman—

in the investigation: “She came to us saying that 

Congressman Jefferson offered to use his congressional 

office to assist her company in an international business 

deal in exchange for a percentage ownership of her 

company. She agreed to cooperate by providing us with 

historical information regarding her interactions with the 

congressman and other co-conspirators and by wearing a 

body recorder and meeting with the congressman to help 

the FBI gather valuable evidence of his corrupt activity.”

You can help. If you suspect public corruption at any level, 

please submit an online tip or call one of the FBI’s public 

corruption hotlines.

It’s our job to follow the evidence, wherever it might lead. 

That’s certainly true in cases of public corruption, our 

highest priority among criminal threats.

So back in 2005, when we received reliable information 

that a sitting member of the U.S. Congress was allegedly 

using his official position to solicit bribes from American 

companies interested in doing business in Africa, we 

opened an investigation.

The congressman in question was William J. Jefferson, 

who had been serving Louisiana’s 2nd congressional 

district since 1991.

Our investigation revealed that from 2000 to 2005, 

Jefferson sought hundreds of millions of dollars for himself 

and other co-conspirators from companies whose success 

depended on the approval of certain U.S. and West 

African government agencies. He ended up pocketing 

more than $478,000, but Jefferson wasted significantly 

more in U.S. government resources to further his illegal 

aims.

At one point, Jefferson turned from bribe recipient 

to bribe payer when he was caught on camera taking 

$100,000 in cash from our cooperating witness for use 

in paying off an African government official. A few days 

later, the FBI—while serving a search warrant on his 

residence—found $90,000 of that same cash in Jefferson’s 

freezer. And a legally authorized search of Jefferson’s 

office turned up documents later used as evidence during 

his trial.

Left: Part of the $90,000 found in then-Congressman William Jefferson’s freezer during a law enforcement search of his residence; this 

particular bundle was wrapped in aluminum foil and concealed inside 

a pie crust box.
2013 The FBI Story 29

April 12, 2013

FBI Gun Collection

Firearms That Help Solve Crimes

attachments, as well as grenade and rocket launchers. 

Another reference collection, the standard ammunition 

file, catalogs more than 15,000 types of commercial and 

military ammunition.

While the breadth of the firearms collection is 

noteworthy, the historic provenance of some of the 

weapons shows it’s a truly unique cache. Here you will 

find John Dillinger’s .45-caliber revolver, Ma Barker 

and her gang’s arsenal, and “Pretty Boy” Floyd’s Colt 

Model 1911. There’s an old Thompson submachine gun 

concealed in a guitar case, and a pistol hidden in the cut 

pages of a rare first edition of Gone with the Wind.

These aren’t the most important weapons in the 

collection, however. Examiners will tell you the single 

most important piece—in a collection that spans more 

than a century of firearms history and ingenuity—is the 

one that helps investigators close a case on any given day. 

The same philosophy has informed the Lab’s meticulous 

stewardship of the collection for eight decades.

“We are only a small part of this collection,” Webb said. 

“It was here long before I was, and it will be here long 

after I’m gone.”

If every gun tells a story, the FBI’s reference firearms 

collection could fill a very, very large book. The 

inventory of more than 7,000 firearms—curated over 80 

years—contains just about every make and model, from 

John Dillinger’s Prohibition-era revolver to the modern 

battlefield’s M16 and almost everything in between.

Housed at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, 

the racks of weapons are not a musty exhibit of 

museum pieces, though some rare items would 

certainly qualify. Rather, the ever-expanding collection 

is a hands-on reference catalog for the Lab’s firearms 

examiners to study, take apart, reassemble, and test fire 

to support investigations. By maintaining a working 

library of virtually every handgun and rifle—along with 

a database of their unique toolmarks—examiners are 

able to identify and substantiate for investigators what 

weapons may have been used in criminal acts.

“Oftentimes, this collection is used in active cases in 

comparing known samples from our collection with 

question samples from the field,” said John Webb, a 

firearms examiner in the Lab’s Firearms/Toolmarks Unit. 

“Often, an investigator will receive a part of a firearm 

or a firearm that isn’t functional. We can take that and 

compare it with our reference collection, determine what 

isn’t functioning, and repair it so we can obtain the test 

fires we need to conduct examinations with bullets and 

cartridge cases.”

Most of the firearms come from closed investigations, 

though some are purchased and still others arrive as 

donations. In most closed cases, guns that were held 

as evidence in court are sent back to the Lab, where 

examiners can add them to the reference collection 

(whole or in parts) or have them destroyed. By 

continuously adding new pieces to the collection, the FBI 

aims to have a duplicate of every firearm. Sometimes a 

case could hinge on linking a firearm component to a 

similar part on a reference gun.

“The collection has been extremely useful in criminal 

cases, not only for an examiner’s experience and 

education in handling nearly every firearm case that 

comes into the Laboratory,” said Webb, “but it has been 

directly responsible for assisting to solve crimes.”

The collection goes beyond firearms and includes 

accessories like suppressors, magazines, and muzzle 

The reference firearms collection includes one of gangster

“Pretty Boy” Floyd’s Colt Model 1911 pistols.

Scan this QR code with your smartphone

to access related video and photos, or visit 

www.fbi.gov/guncollection.
30 2013 The FBI Story

April 26, 2013

Insider Threat

Soldier Receives 16-Year

Sentence for Attempted

Espionage

The investigation revealed that Millay had approached 

several soldiers about his treasonous plan, said Special 

Agent Derrick Criswell, who worked the case. “Some of 

the individuals he made statements to did not take him 

seriously,” Criswell noted, “but some did. Still, no one 

came forward to report his activity.”

Both Criswell and Johnson believe the fact that no one 

reported Millay further illustrates the need to raise 

awareness about the insider threat and the risk it poses 

to national security. “One person can do a tremendous 

amount of damage,” Johnson said.

Criswell’s duties as a counterintelligence investigator 

include presenting briefings to government and industry 

organizations regarding espionage and the insider threat. 

Despite his familiarity with the problem, though, Criswell 

added, “It is still shocking and always disappointing to 

identify anyone who is willing to betray his country in 

this manner.”

The Bureau investigated the case jointly with Army 

Counterintelligence and the Air Force Office of Special 

Investigations. “This has been a significant case for 

Alaska,” Johnson said, adding, “It’s the first known 

espionage arrest and prosecution that I am aware of 

in the state. And if it can happen here, it can happen 

anywhere.”

A 22-year-old military police officer in Alaska has been 

sentenced to a 16-year jail term in connection with his 

efforts to sell classified documents to a person he believed 

was a Russian intelligence officer.

In 2011, William Millay was stationed at Joint Base 

Elmendorf-Richardson near Anchorage when he began to 

talk to—and solicit help from—other military members 

regarding selling classified national defense information 

to the Russians.

“This case really drives home the point that the 

insider threat is alive and well,” said Special Agent 

Sam Johnson, who supervises a national security 

squad in our Anchorage Division. “That’s why 

counterintelligence investigations continue to be a very 

high priority for the FBI.”

Millay, who joined the Army in 2007 and had served 

a combat tour in Iraq, was known to have harsh and 

sometimes radical views of the military and the U.S. 

government—the white supremacist tattoos on his body 

likely reflect his ideology. But his attempt at spying had 

nothing to do with ideology or politics, Johnson said. 

Instead, he was motivated by greed.

“Money was what he was after,” Johnson explained. “He 

was willing to sell sensitive information—to potentially 

endanger his fellow military members as well as the 

security of the country—for a payday.”

The Russian officer he believed he was dealing with, 

however, was really an FBI undercover operative. The 

case played out like a spy thriller, with Millay placing 

secret documents about military technology at a dead 

drop site—a pre-arranged hiding place—and later 

retrieving a payment of $3,000 in exchange.

After an extensive investigation, Millay was arrested in 

October 2011; in addition to attempted espionage, he 

was charged with soliciting another individual to commit 

espionage. He pled guilty to these and other violations of 

the Uniform Code of Military Justice at a military court 

proceeding in March and was sentenced by a panel of 

military members earlier this month.
2013 The FBI Story 31

April 30, 2013

A Different Kind of

Outreach

Evidence Response Teams

Connect with Kids

A member of the Charlotte ERT demonstrates some evidence

collection techniques at a local high school.

“Our presentations almost always include a discussion of 

the ERT’s 12-step process to manage a crime scene, followed 

by a show-and-tell of several pieces of ERT equipment and 

supplies. A common theme at all of these events is that the 

kids see us as real people. And because some of the youngest 

kids we meet sometimes don’t seem to grasp what we do, 

I usually bring a football or baseball to toss around at the 

outdoor events—plenty of smiles in return!”

- ERT member, Cleveland

“Among other activities, we take part annually in Kids and 

Cops Day at the Texas State Fair. We prepare an ERT 

display and let kids lift their own fingerprints off the side 

of an ERT response vehicle. The feedback we get is always 

positive, and the event is also very rewarding—many people 

stop by the booth just to thank us for what we do.”

- ERT member, Dallas

Special Agent Dayna Sepeck is chief of the Evidence 

Response Team Unit at the FBI Laboratory. She strongly 

believes in the value of these interactions between ERT 

personnel and young people. “By meeting with these kids 

one on one, school by school, community by community, 

we hope to get them thinking about working at the 

FBI when they’re older. We also hope that, as adults 

looking back on their interaction with us, they’ll be fully 

supportive of our mission to protect the nation.”

Members of our Evidence Response Teams (ERTs)—

located in FBI offices around the country—often spend 

their days at scenes of deadly crimes or mass disaster sites 

collecting evidence to determine what happened and 

identify criminals or victims.

But once in a while—as their hectic schedules allow—

our ERT personnel leave behind the grim nature of their 

jobs to take part in outreach efforts with young people 

in their communities, demonstrating forensic procedures 

and often inspiring their audiences to consider a scientific 

or other type of career in the FBI.

Over the past couple of years, ERT members have 

taken part in about 500 community events around 

the country—usually through the Bureau’s community 

outreach program—and have reached an untold number 

of youngsters, from kindergartners to college students. 

These events include school career days and forensics 

classes; law school presentations; activities sponsored by 

youth groups, leadership groups, ethnic community-based 

groups, other law enforcement agencies, and businesses; 

summer camps; museum programs; county and state fairs; 

and police academies.

The forensic procedures most often demonstrated? Using 

alternate light sources—like ultraviolet—to recover 

virtually invisible evidence, dusting for fingerprints, 

casting shoe and tire print impressions, sketching crime 

scenes, and recovering hair and fiber evidence. Another 

big draw is a tour of the ERT crime scene truck.

Members of our ERT staff who take part in these 

events believe in their value, both for the students who 

participate and for the FBI. Here’s what a few of them had 

to say about their experiences:

“We were invited to speak at a forensics class at a high 

school but ended up addressing the entire school. We set 

up demonstrations, allowing the students to see some of 

our evidence collection techniques first-hand. They saw 

how similar and how different evidence collection is when 

compared to what’s on television.”

- ERT member, Charlotte
32 2013 The FBI Story

May 2, 2013

New Most Wanted 

Terrorist

Joanne Chesimard First

Woman Added to List

on the New Jersey Turnpike. At the time, Chesimard—a 

member of the violent revolutionary activist organization 

known as the Black Liberation Army—was wanted 

for her involvement in several felonies, including bank 

robbery.

Chesimard and her accomplices opened fire on the 

troopers. One officer was wounded, and his partner—

Trooper Foerster—was shot and killed at point-blank 

range. One of Chesimard’s accomplices was killed in the 

shootout and the other was arrested and remains in jail.

Chesimard fled but was apprehended. In 1977, she was 

found guilty of first-degree murder, armed robbery, and 

other crimes and was sentenced to life in prison. Less 

than two years later, she escaped from prison and lived 

underground before surfacing in Cuba in 1984.

In addition to being the first woman named as a 

Most Wanted Terrorist, Chesimard is only the second 

domestic terrorist to be added to the list.

“This crime was always considered an act of domestic 

terrorism,” said Rinaldi, who has been working the case 

for six years with other members of the JTTF. In the late 

1960s and early 1970s, he explained, the Black Liberation 

Army was a “radical left wing terror group that felt 

justified killing law enforcement officers. Throughout the 

‘70s,” Rinaldi added, “this group conducted assaults on 

police stations and murdered police officers.”

Chesimard’s 1979 escape from prison was well planned, 

Rinaldi explained. “Armed domestic terrorists gained 

entry into the facility, neutralized the guards, broke her 

free, and turned her over to a nearby getaway team.”

Although Chesimard has been granted asylum in Cuba, 

Rinaldi stressed,“This is an active investigation and will 

continue as such until Chesimard is apprehended.”

We need your help: If you have any information 

concerning Joanne Chesimard, who now goes by the 

name Assata Shakur, please contact your local FBI office 

or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.

Note: Joanne Chesimard may have been located since the 

above information was posted on our website. Please check 

our Most Wanted Terrorists webpage at www.fbi.gov/wanted/

wanted_terrorists for up-to-date information.

On the 40th anniversary of the cold-blooded murder 

of a New Jersey state trooper, the fugitive convicted of 

the killing, Joanne Chesimard, has been named a Most 

Wanted Terrorist by the FBI—the first woman ever to 

make the list.

Officials from the FBI and the New Jersey State 

Police made the announcement this morning during 

a press conference, noting that the FBI is offering a 

reward of up to $1 million for information leading to 

the apprehension of Chesimard, who is believed to be 

living in Cuba under political asylum. Additionally, 

the state of New Jersey is offering an independent 

reward of up to $1 million, bringing the total 

maximum reward to $2 million.

“Joanne Chesimard is a domestic terrorist who murdered 

a law enforcement officer execution-style,” said Aaron 

Ford, special agent in charge of our Newark Division. 

“Today, on the anniversary of Trooper Werner Foerster’s 

death, we want the public to know that we will not rest 

until this fugitive is brought to justice.”

“This case is just as important today as it was when it 

happened 40 years ago,” added Mike Rinaldi, a lieutenant 

in the New Jersey State Police and member of our Joint 

Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in Newark. “Bringing 

Joanne Chesimard back here to face justice is still a top 

priority,” he said.

On May 2, 1973, Chesimard and a pair of accomplices 

were stopped by two troopers for a motor vehicle violation 
2013 The FBI Story 33

May 7, 2013

The FBI and Leadership

Part 1: Helping Employees ‘Lead 

Where They Stand’

Janet Kamerman, executive assistant director of our Human

Resources Branch, is a principal architect of the Bureau’s

Leadership Development Program.

employees explore where they are in their own leadership 

development, as well as where they aspire to be and how 

to get there. In fact, these concepts are discussed with 

FBI employees during their first week in the Bureau. 

The program provides a framework for examining 

and improving leadership at the individual, team, and 

organizational level. People usually think of training 

when they think of leadership development, but you 

can only learn so much from the classroom. We want 

our employees to learn from a variety of developmental 

experiences.

Q: Can you tell us about an employee’s first week in 

the Bureau?

Ms. Kamerman: We call it the Onboarding New 

Employees (ONE) program, and it began in January 2012. 

Now, all new employees begin their FBI career at the FBI 

Academy in Quantico. People coming from Boston or 

Seattle—or wherever—all start together at the academy. 

In addition to learning the history and culture of the 

organization, they also get a block of training regarding 

leadership and the FBI’s leadership doctrine. Regardless of 

an employee’s job title—be it scientist or executive—from 

your very first experiences, you are taught the concept of 

leading where you stand. And that lays the foundation for 

leadership development throughout your career.

Part 2: The FBI’s leadership doctrine (page 34)

FBI.gov recently sat down with Janet Kamerman, 

executive assistant director of our Human Resources 

Branch—and one of the principal architects of the FBI’s 

Leadership Development Program—to talk about the 

importance of leadership at all levels of the organization.

Q: Why is leadership development so important to the 

FBI?

Ms. Kamerman: Leadership is important in any 

organization, but because of the FBI’s mission to protect 

our national security and uphold the Constitution, 

effective leadership is essential. Some of the challenges 

we are confronted with every day as an organization 

are immediate and potentially deadly. We are leaders 

nationwide and worldwide in the law enforcement and 

intelligence communities. We need to continue to 

develop our employees to meet the challenges of today 

and tomorrow, as there is so much at stake.

Q: How does the FBI address leadership development 

in an organization of 36,000 employees?

Ms. Kamerman: The Bureau hires talented and 

committed individuals. Whether they are agents or 

professional staff, our employees usually have impressive 

leadership experiences prior to becoming FBI employees. 

We view leadership development as a continuous cycle, 

from your first day on the job to the day you retire. And 

it’s not just about training. It’s about being exposed to the 

right experiences, the right mentors—and getting honest 

feedback from supervisors and peers so we can self-reflect 

and constantly seek self improvement.

Q: The Leadership Development Program (LDP) was 

created in 2009. What are the program’s goals?

Ms. Kamerman: The LDP was designed to put a 

common language around leadership and to make sure 

that employees—as part of the whole organization—

understand the value of leadership. One of the mottos we 

have is “lead where you stand.” Regardless of what job a 

person has in the Bureau, employees need to understand 

the importance of leadership.

Q: How would you describe the LDP?

Ms. Kamerman: The program includes courses, online 

tools, mentors—an entire range of resources to help 
34 2013 The FBI Story

May 10, 2013

Left: FBI Human Resources Branch Executive Assistant Director 

Janet Kamerman

The FBI and Leadership

Part 2: Character, Courage, 

Competence, and Collaboration

Ms. Kamerman: I think it probably stems from my time 

in the military and how leadership is embedded into the 

very fabric of military culture—from the very first day 

of service. Historically, this has not been the case in the 

Bureau. I recognized through my various assignments 

and conversations with hundreds of employees how 

much more effective the FBI would be if we had a 

comprehensive leadership development program. I was 

fortunate enough to be in a position to implement such a 

program.

Q: What do you personally look for when selecting 

members of your leadership team?

Ms. Kamerman: I often get asked that question. Through 

the years, the people that I absolutely loved working with 

all had three similar qualities. They were team players, 

they took initiative, and they made everyone else around 

them look better. Anyone can measure themselves against 

those three qualities. Leadership is not about a job title. 

While it is very important to get the job done, I believe 

what is more important is how you go about getting the 

job done. The reason that’s important is because how we 

do it ensures that we can continue to do it over time. We 

don’t just want to clear the hurdle. We want to get way 

over the hurdle with enough momentum so that the next 

hurdle—even if it’s higher—will not be a problem.

Q: What are your goals for the LDP in the future?

Ms. Kamerman: The programs we have in place 

today—classes, seminars, mentors, onboarding programs, 

peer support, and other resources—and the ones we will 

implement going forward need to continually be reviewed 

and updated. Our goal is to have leadership development 

embedded in the FBI culture at all levels—anchored 

deep into our promotion processes, our human resources 

processes, into the very structure and fabric of the 

Bureau.

Part 2 of an interview with Janet Kamerman, executive 

assistant director of our Human Resources Branch, about the 

FBI’s leadership program.

Q: The basis of the FBI’s Leadership Development 

Program (LDP) is a leadership doctrine. How was that 

doctrine created?

Ms. Kamerman: The FBI’s leadership doctrine, 

consisting of what we call the four C’s—character, 

courage, competence, and collaboration—was developed 

by FBI employees through a series of workshops. The goal 

was to capture what our employees value in their leaders 

with an accountability aspect to it.

Q: Can anybody be a leader?

Ms. Kamerman: I believe leadership skills can absolutely 

be learned, and everybody can improve. We often say 

there is no finish line in leadership—it’s a journey, and 

you have to keep learning and developing. While we hire 

people with previous leadership experience, we believe 

our programs can improve everyone’s leadership skills.

Q: You have been instrumental in establishing and 

implementing the Bureau’s leadership program. How 

did you become so passionate about this subject?
2013 The FBI Story 35

May 14, 2013

Police Week

Honoring the Fallen

Thousands of law enforcement officers from around the country

honored their fallen colleagues during the annual Police Week

in Washington, D.C.

This is the 25th year of Police Week, which began in 1962 when 

President John F. Kennedy signed a proclamation that designated 

May 15 as Peace Officers Memorial Day.

Candles and laser lights illuminate the darkness at the National Law 

Enforcement Officers Memorial. 

A visitor makes a pencil-rubbing of a name on the memorial wall.

Thousands of law enforcement officers from around 

the country gathered last night at the National Law 

Enforcement Officers Memorial for a candlelight vigil 

to honor fallen officers. The names of more than 19,000 

men and women grace the memorial’s marble walls. On 

Monday, 321 new names were officially added, including 

120 who died last year. The names of the fallen were read 

aloud after thousands of participants passed a flame from 

candle to candle. In remarks to participants, Homeland 

Security Secretary Janet Napolitano saluted those who 

wear the badge. 

“Heroes, patriots, and role models who did not flinch 

at the first sign of danger,” she said, “but like all law 

enforcement, acted to protect us even though their lives 

were on the line.” 

Attorney General Eric Holder said the officers died doing 

what they loved. 

“They helped to make this world a far better—and 

safer—place,” Holder said. “And, despite the fact that 

these brave officers were taken from us far too suddenly—

and far too soon—their legacies and contributions will 

always endure.”

For more information, visit www.fbi.gov/policeweek2013.
36 2013 The FBI Story

May 14, 2013

Internet Crime 2012

IC3 Releases Annual Report

new twist, criminals are posing as dealers rather than 

individual sellers.

▪ FBI impersonation e-mail scam: The names of 

various government agencies and government officials 

have been used in spam attacks for some time, and 

complaints related to spam e-mail purportedly sent by 

the FBI continue to be reported with high frequency. 

These scams, which include elements of Nigerian 

scam letters, incorporate get-rich inheritance 

scenarios, bogus lottery winning notifications, and 

occasional extortion threats.

▪ Intimidation/extortion scams: More popular 

ones involve payday loan scams (harassing phone 

calls to victims claiming they are delinquent on 

loan payments), process server scams (a supposed 

process server shows up at a victim’s house or place 

of employment but is willing to take a debit card 

number for payment in order to avoid court), and 

grandparent scams (fraudsters contacting elderly 

victims pretending to be a young family member in 

some sort of legal or financial crisis).

▪ Scareware/ransomware: There are different 

variations of these scams, but one involves victims 

receiving pop-up messages on their computers 

alerting them to purported infections that can only 

be fixed by purchasing particular antivirus software. 

Another involves malware that freezes victims’ 

computers and displays a warning of a violation of 

U.S. law and directions to pay a fine to the U.S. 

Department of Justice.

Read more on these and other scams—as well as online 

crime prevention tips—in the IC3’s latest report. An 

educated consumer is the most effective weapon against 

Internet fraudsters.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3, had 

received dozens of complaints about a St. Louis woman 

who was selling what she claimed were designer handbags. 

Buyers spent as much as $100,000 for a single bag, but 

ended up with either knock-off bags or sometimes nothing 

at all...and the woman refused to refund their money. 

The IC3 forwarded the complaints to the St. Louis FBI 

Field Office, and, after an investigation, the woman was 

charged with selling counterfeit goods and ultimately pled 

guilty last year.

This case is an example of the effectiveness of the IC3—a 

partnership between the FBI and the National White 

Collar Crime Center. Submissions to this central hub for 

Internet-related crime complaints can not only lead to 

culprits getting caught, but also help identify trends that 

are then posted on the IC3’s website to educate the public 

about constantly evolving cyber threats and scams.

Today, as part of its ongoing education and prevention 

mission, the IC3 released its latest annual snapshot 

of online crime and fraud—the 2012 Internet Crime 

Report. While there is no end to the variety of cyber 

scams, the report highlights some of the most frequent 

ones from 2012. Here are a few examples of what to look 

for to help keep you from being victimized:

▪ Auto fraud: Criminals attempt to sell vehicles that 

they really don’t own, usually advertising them on 

various online platforms at prices below market value. 

Often the fraudsters claim they must sell the vehicles 

quickly because they are relocating for work, are 

being deployed by the military, or have a tragic family 

circumstance and are in need of money. And in a 
2013 The FBI Story 37

May 20, 2013

The Fix Was In

Crime in College Hoops

The following season—2010-2011—Johnson had 

graduated, but he nonetheless tried to recruit another 

player to continue the scheme. His attempt ultimately 

failed. Brown also tried—even making attempts at two 

other schools—but he failed as well.

To penetrate this close-knit conspiracy, the FBI 

made use of its array of investigative techniques, 

including court-authorized wiretaps, physical surveillance, 

confidential informants, subpoenaed documents, and 

interviews. We also had the cooperation of USD officials 

and the NCAA. By April 2011, an indictment in 

conspiracy had been announced.

At the time of the indictment, U.S. Attorney Laura 

Duffy of the Southern District of California said, 

“Whether in the area of politics, law, or sports, the 

phrase ‘the fix is in’ sends chills down the spines of all 

Americans... Tampering with sports events strikes at the 

integrity of the games; this kind of betrayal is not merely 

disappointing—it is criminal and worthy of prosecution.”

While the FBI focuses on the criminal leadership in these 

sorts of enterprises, athletes and coaches willing to sell 

out their teams for money can get caught in the net and 

pay the price. Our advice: Think twice before gambling 

with your future.

It’s a cautionary tale for college and professional athletes 

alike.

Following a three-year FBI investigation dubbed 

Operation Hook Shot, eight people—including former 

University of San Diego (USD) basketball star Brandon 

Johnson, the school’s all-time point and assist leader—

were convicted and sentenced to federal prison terms for 

taking part in a sports bribery conspiracy. The eighth 

and final defendant, illegal bookmaker Richard Francis 

Garmo, was sentenced last month.

The case began—as most of our sports bribery matters 

do—as an organized crime investigation. In 2009, we 

began looking into the activities of a criminal enterprise 

operating in the San Diego area. Along with selling 

marijuana, the group was operating an illegal online 

gambling business. A related criminal activity, Bureau 

investigators discovered, was a scheme to fix USD men’s 

basketball games.

Playing a pivotal role in the scheme was Thaddeus 

Brown, an assistant basketball coach at USD during the 

2006-2007 season. Brown had placed bets with the illegal 

gambling business operated by Garmo and two partnersin-crime. Though no longer with the team, he still had 

contacts among the USD players. During the 2009-2010 

season, he recruited Johnson—USD’s starting point 

guard—to influence the outcome of basketball games in 

exchange for money. Brown was paid handsomely for his 

role in the conspiracy—up to $10,000 per game.

During that season, it’s believed that at least four 

games were “fixed” with Johnson’s assistance. Perhaps 

the senior point guard would miss a free throw now and 

then or draw a technical foul. Or he would just pass up 

a shot—at one point Johnson was heard on electronic 

surveillance talking about how he wouldn’t shoot at the 

end of a particular game because it would have cost him 

$1,000.

The co-conspirators routinely got together to discuss the 

predictions of oddsmakers and to pick which games to fix. 

They would then make their bets—often on the other 

team (USD was usually favored to win)—which would 

enhance their winnings even more. And with Johnson 

manipulating the games, they usually won their bets, 

netting them more than $120,000.
38 2013 The FBI Story

May 24, 2013

Looking for Our Children

National Missing Children’s Day 2013

Earlier this month in Cleveland, three young women were 

freed from years of captivity after a concerned neighbor 

responded to an urgent call for help.

We need your help, too, in rescuing the many kids 

who remain far from home today. Please take a minute 

to look at all the faces above and on our Kidnapping 

and Missing Persons webpage and see if you can identify 

Crystal, Jaliek, Rolando, or any of the other children 

listed with their stories.

Also take a look at the faces of the children who have 

been kidnapped by a parent—Mohammad Hussain 

Metla, Jr. and the many other kids.

And we hope you’ll visit our Violent Crimes Against 

Children page to learn all you can about what a 

dangerous world it can be for our kids...and our 

Resources for Parents page to learn how to protect them 

in today’s world.

Last: Join us in honoring the law enforcement officers and 

others recognized as part of National Missing Children’s 

Day, including FBI Special Agent John D. Wydra, Jr. of 

our Charlotte Division. Our partners at the National 

Center for Missing & Exploited Children also recognized 

a dozen FBI employees for going “above and beyond 

the call of duty for safely recovering missing child or 

successfully resolving a child sexual exploitation case.”

Note: The children pictured here may have been located since 

the above information was posted on our website. Please 

check our Wanted by the FBI website at www.fbi.gov/wanted

for up-to-date information.
2013 The FBI Story 39

May 27, 2013

Sean Clifton was seriously injured in 2009 during a raid in

Afghanistan. Today, he works for the FBI in Ohio.

Wounded Warriors

Helping Injured Soldiers

Continue to Serve

interests, develop job skills, and gain federal work 

experience. So far, more than 50 wounded warriors have 

participated in the program since the pilot began in 

March 2011, and 15 of those interns have since come on 

board as full-time FBI employees.

“My goal for the program is for every field office, 

every Headquarters division to have at least two 

wounded warriors working in their space,” said 

William McNeill, manager of our Wounded Warriors 

and Veterans Program and a 23-year Army veteran.

“These service members still have so much more to give. 

They may not be able to serve in the capacity they first 

desired...but that sense of commitment and dedication is 

still there.”

Four years after his injury, Clifton is grateful for all the 

support the FBI provided him as a wounded warrior and 

as a Bureau employee. “Even from day one, coming in 

as an intern—that helped me out not only physically, 

but mentally and emotionally, too, because now I have 

another mission and another team to be a part of. And 

that was just a big part of my healing.”

This Memorial Day—and always—the FBI remembers 

those who have fallen and thanks our nation’s current 

and former service members for all they have done and 

continue to do for the country.

May 31, 2009. Eastern Afghanistan. U.S. Army Sgt. 1st 

Class Sean Clifton and his Special Forces team were 

conducting a raid against a Taliban stronghold. As an 

assault team leader, Clifton busted into a compound—

and into a wall of enemy bullets. “I still remember 

everything vividly,” he said, “from the time I kicked 

in that door to the time they Medevaced me off the 

battlefield.”

Clifton was critically injured, with major organ damage 

and a shattered wrist. He eventually pulled through and 

spent several months at Walter Reed Medical Center 

in Washington, D.C. before returning to his hometown 

of Columbus, Ohio. There, he learned about Operation 

Warfighter, a Department of Defense program that places 

wounded service members in internship positions with 

federal agencies so they can contribute while healing 

(at the time, the program was only available in the D.C. 

area). Intrigued by this idea but wanting to stay in Ohio, 

Clifton—who had at one time considered becoming 

an FBI agent—called up our Cincinnati Division to 

see if it would be willing to do something similar. The 

answer? “Anything we can do to support you during your 

recovery.”

Clifton began working as an intern in our Columbus 

Resident Agency, shadowing analysts and agents to help 

out on cases. And when his time with the military—and 

therefore, the internship—was up, another door opened. 

On April 22, 2012, Clifton became a full-time Bureau 

employee.

Clifton is one of many injured service members who 

found a place at the FBI. Various field offices—like 

Cincinnati—have allowed wounded warriors to intern 

with them over the years...and field-wide interest and 

support led to a national pilot program, then to the 

launch of the FBI’s official Wounded Warrior Internship 

Program in August 2012.

Participants—who remain on the military’s payroll—must 

first be approved through Operation Warfighter, have at 

least nine months left on their wounded warrior status, 

and be able to pass a full background investigation. Those 

selected are given assignments around the country that 

don’t interfere with their rehabilitation and recovery and 

that allow them to build a résumé, explore employment 
40 2013 The FBI Story

May 31, 2013

Act of Terror Averted

Would-Be Bomber

Sentenced in Chicago

and other federal, state, and local law enforcement 

personnel in addition to FBI agents, Special Agent Sam 

Hartman—who served as co-case agent with Chicago 

Police Detective Angel Lorenzo—explained that “a 

case like this doesn’t have a successful outcome unless 

everybody pulls together. The JTTF played a key role in 

this investigation.”

“I am proud of the work done by our investigative team 

in preventing Hassoun from carrying out his intended act 

of violence,” said Cory B. Nelson, special agent in charge 

of our Chicago Field Office. “The FBI remains vigilant in 

our mission to prevent attacks against Americans.”

We were initially alerted to Hassoun by an informant 

who warned that Hassoun was hoping to profit from 

committing extreme acts of violent in Chicago. “He 

had no qualms about potentially killing lots of people,” 

Hartman said. “And he wanted money in return.”

Hassoun pled guilty to attempted use of a weapon of 

mass destruction and attempted use of an explosive 

device, and he admitted telling a law enforcement 

informant that he suggested bombing the commercial 

area surrounding Wrigley Field. The informant later 

introduced Hassoun to an undercover FBI operative who 

posed as an accomplice. Hassoun also said he was willing 

to use a car bomb and to attack Chicago police officers.

On three occasions in August 2010, Hassoun videotaped 

potential targets around Wrigley Field, focusing 

on popular bars and restaurants. As he filmed, he 

commented on the tactical advantages and risks of an 

attack at the various locations.

On the night of September 18, Hassoun was ready to 

set his plan in motion. He took a shopping bag and a 

backpack from our undercover agents that he thought 

contained a powerful bomb. The agents said the device 

was surrounded by ball-bearings and that the blast could 

destroy half a city block. A few minutes after midnight, 

after he had helped set the device’s timer, Hassoun placed 

the backpack into the trash container on the crowded 

sidewalk by the stadium.

“Hassoun was an example of the so-called lone offender,” 

Hartman said. “He had no ties to organized terror groups, 

but he was clearly a terrorist—and potentially an extreme 

danger to the public. We were fortunate to have stopped 

him.”

A federal judge has sentenced an Illinois man to 23 

years in prison for an attempted bombing in 2010 near 

Chicago’s Wrigley Field that was intended to cause mass 

casualties and paralyze the community.

On that Saturday evening in September, while a 

concert was taking place at the Chicago Cubs baseball 

stadium, Sami Samir Hassoun placed a backpack 

that he thought contained a powerful bomb into a 

trash can on a nearby crowded street. The device 

was a fake—supplied by an FBI undercover agent—but 

had it been real, the effects would have been “horrific,” 

according to the judge who sentenced Hassoun yesterday.

A Lebanese citizen legally living in Chicago, Hassoun 

never posed a danger to the public, thanks to an 

investigation led by our Joint Terrorism Task Force 

(JTTF) in Chicago. But the 25-year-old would-be 

terrorist had earlier told an accomplice—who was really 

an FBI undercover agent—that any casualties from the 

attack would be the inevitable result of what he termed 

“revolution.”

Noting that the JTTF consists of Chicago police officers 
2013 The FBI Story 41

June 3, 2013

Preliminary 2012 

Crime Statistics

Violent Crime Up,

Property Crime Down

The UCR Program is a nationwide cooperative 

statistical effort of law enforcement agencies 

voluntarily reporting data on crimes brought to their 

attention.

The idea for the program began in the 1920s, when 

the International Association of Chiefs of Police—

recognizing a need for national crime statistics—formed 

the Committee on Uniform Crime Records to develop 

a system. After studying state criminal codes and 

evaluating the recordkeeping practices in use, the 

committee completed a plan for crime reporting that 

became the foundation of the UCR Program in 1929. In 

January 1930, 400 cities in 43 states began participating 

in the program. That same year, Congress authorized 

the attorney general to gather crime data; the FBI was 

designated to serve as the national clearinghouse for the 

collected information.

The UCR Program’s primary objective is to generate 

reliable statistics for use in law enforcement 

administration, operation, and management. Over 

the years, however, these statistics have become one 

of the country’s leading social indicators and are used 

by criminologists, sociologists, legislators, municipal 

planners, the media, and other students of criminal 

justice for research and planning purposes.

A word of warning, though—don’t draw conclusions from 

the data by making direct comparisons between cities or 

individual agencies. Valid assessments are only possible 

with careful study and analysis of the unique conditions 

that affect each law enforcement jurisdiction.

Once again, the final Crime in the United States, 2012

report will be available later this year.

The new preliminary Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) 

statistics for 2012 indicate that when compared to data 

for 2011, the number of violent crimes reported by law 

enforcement agencies around the country increased 1.2 

percent during 2012, while the number of property crimes 

decreased 0.8 percent.

The final UCR statistics—submitted by approximately 

18,000 local, state, campus, tribal, and federal law 

enforcement agencies from around the nation—will be 

released later this year in the Crime in the United States, 

2012 report. 

Among the highlights of the preliminary report:

▪ Overall, when compared to 2011 figures, the 

West experienced the largest increase in reported 

violent crime (up 3.3 percent), and the Northeast 

experienced the only decrease (down 0.6 percent).

▪ The Northeast was the only part of the country 

where the four violent crime categories saw decreases 

across the board—murder (down 4.4 percent), 

forcible rapes (down 0.2 percent), robberies (down 1.4 

percent), and aggravated assaults (down 0.1 percent).

▪ The largest rise in reported violent crime (up 3.7 

percent) was in cities with populations of 500,000-

999,999.

▪ The West experienced the only increase in reported 

property crime (up 5.2 percent), while the number 

of property crimes dropped 1.6 percent in the 

Northeast, 2.1 percent in the Midwest, and 3.5 

percent in the South.

▪ The number of reported motor vehicle thefts grew by 

10.6 percent in the West while showing declines in 

the Northeast (down 7.9 percent), the Midwest (down 

3.1 percent), and the South (down 2.9 percent).

▪ The number of arson incidents—tallied separately 

from other property crimes because of various levels 

of participation by reporting agencies—fell 1.2 

percent.
42 2013 The FBI Story

June 6, 2013

Child Abductions

When Custody Issues

Lead to Violence

Some recent cases:

▪ In 2009, a non-custodial mother abducted her 

8-month-old son from his custodial father in Texas. 

She told the father she killed the boy to prevent the 

father from employing his custodial rights and in 

retaliation for his alleged involvement with other 

women.

▪ In 2011, a 2-year-old girl was abducted by her noncustodial father in California. A week later, both 

were found dead. The father committed suicide after 

shooting his daughter.

▪ In 2012, a non-custodial father in Utah abducted and 

killed his 7- and 5-year-old sons and then committed 

suicide. He was angry over not being afforded sole 

custody of the children.

“In contrast to international parental abductions, our 

analysis indicates that domestic custodial abductions 

are more likely to have violent outcomes for children,” 

Douglas explained, adding that a number of factors 

contribute to this trend. About 46 percent of American 

children are born to unwed parents, and 40 to 50 percent 

of marriages end in divorce. That usually leaves one 

parent with custody of the child.

Douglas offers a suggestion to help keep children 

safe: Custodial parents should inform schools, aftercare facilities, babysitters, and others who may at times 

be responsible for their children about what custody 

agreements are in place so that kids are not mistakenly 

released to non-custodial parents.

“The other big takeaway from our analysis,” she added, “is 

that law enforcement must act quickly in non-custodial 

abductions to keep children from being harmed. It’s 

mind-boggling to think that a parent would hurt their 

child to retaliate against the other parent,” Douglas said, 

“but in that moment, they make themselves believe that 

it’s okay.”

An analysis of recent FBI child abduction investigations 

has revealed a disturbing trend: Non-custodial parents are 

increasingly abducting and threatening to harm their own 

kids to retaliate against parents who were granted legal 

custody of the children.

“Unfortunately, the threat of violence—and death—in 

these cases is all too real,” said Ashli-Jade Douglas, an 

FBI analyst in our Violent Crimes Against Children 

Intelligence Unit who specializes in child abduction 

matters. “Most non-custodial parental abductors want 

retaliation. They feel that if they can’t have the child full 

time—or any amount of time—then the other parent 

shouldn’t have the child, either.”

An analysis of all FBI child abduction cases where a 

motivation was known shows that custodial-motivated 

abductions—in which a son or daughter is taken against 

the will of the child and the custodial parent—have 

increased from 9 percent in fiscal year 2010 to 50 percent 

in fiscal year 2012. Sometimes the motivation is to 

convince the custodial parent to stay in a relationship; 

more often it is to harm the child in an act of retaliation. 

This trend appears to be on the rise, Douglas said. At 

least 25 instances of such abductions have been reported 

to the FBI since October.

“Our analysis indicates that children age 3 years and 

younger of unwed or divorced parents are most at risk of 

being abducted by their non-custodial parent,” Douglas 

added. “And the timely reporting of the abduction 

by the custodial parent to law enforcement is crucial 

in increasing the likelihood of recovering the child 

unharmed and apprehending the offender.” 
2013 The FBI Story 43

June 11, 2013

Civil Rights in the ‘60s

Part 1: Justice for Medgar Evers

Medgar Evers stands near a Mississippi sign in 1958. (AP Photo)

organizer in her own right—asked local prosecutors to 

reopen the investigation and see if other evidence could 

be found. The FBI again provided its assistance. In 

December 1990, a new grand jury returned an indictment 

against Beckwith based on witnesses finally willing to tell 

their stories, including hearing the white supremacist brag 

how he had killed Medgar Evers.

This time, justice was done. Beckwith was convicted in 

1994 and sentenced to life in prison.

The murder of Medgar Ever was a loss to his family, the 

community, and the nation. Evers was a devoted husband 

and father, a distinguished World War II veteran, and a 

pioneering civil rights leader. He served as the NAACP’s 

first field secretary in Mississippi—organizing protests and 

voter registration drives, recruiting new workers into the 

civil rights movement, and pushing for school integration.

But his death in 1963 was not in vain. The brutal, 

senseless murder helped galvanize the nation in its steady 

march towards equality and justice. More on that later...

The tumultuous 1960s were a pivotal time in our nation’s 

march toward equal rights for all Americans. The following 

is the first in a series of stories over the next few years about 

landmark civil rights investigations five decades ago.

About half past midnight, a shot rang out.

It was June 12, 1963—50 years ago tomorrow—in a 

suburban neighborhood of Jackson, Mississippi. A 37-

year-old civil rights activist named Medgar Evers had just 

come home after a meeting of the NAACP.

As he began the short walk up to his single-story rambler, 

the bullet struck Evers in the back. He staggered up to the 

steps of the house, then collapsed.

Across the street on a lightly wooded hill, another 

man jumped up in pain. The recoil from the Enfield 

rifle he had just fired drove the scope into his eye, badly 

bruising him. He dropped the weapon and fled.

Meanwhile, Evers’ wife and three children—still awake 

after watching an important civil rights speech by 

President John F. Kennedy—heard the shot and quickly 

came outside. They were soon joined by neighbors and 

police. His wounds severe, Evers died within the hour.

Leading the investigation, the local police immediately 

found the rifle and determined that it had been recently 

fired. Back at the station, a fingerprint was recovered 

from the scope and submitted to the FBI. We connected 

it to a man named Byron De La Beckwith based on its 

similarity to his military service prints. He was arrested 

several days later. Beckwith, a known white supremacist 

and segregationist, had been asking around to find out 

the location of Evers’ home for some time prior to the 

shooting.

With the obvious motive, his fingerprint on the 

weapon, the injury around his eye, his planning, and 

other factors, Beckwith clearly appeared to be the 

killer. In two separate trials, local prosecutors presented 

a strong case. A number of police, FBI experts, and 

others testified on different parts of the evidence against 

Beckwith.

But this was the 1960s, and in both trials, all-white 

juries did not reach a verdict. Beckwith went free.

By the early 1990s, however, the time was ripe to revisit 

the case. Evers’ widow, Myrlie—a formidable civil rights 
44 2013 The FBI Story

June 14, 2013

A Byte Out of History

The Lasting Legacy of

Operation Illwind

The contractor agreed to cooperate and to let us monitor 

phone conversions he had with the consultant. After 

collecting enough information to determine what the 

consultant was up to, we confronted the man—and 

he agreed to cooperate as well. We soon had enough 

probable cause for the case’s first court-authorized 

electronic surveillance, or wiretap, and over time 

developed probable cause for others.

That enabled the FBI and its partners in the case—

including NIS, the Defense Criminal Intelligence Service, 

the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and the 

Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Division—to execute 

more than three dozen search warrants in D.C. and 12 

states on June 14, 1988. These searches of the offices of 

defense contractors, consultants, and government officials 

yielded a mountain of evidence, including financial 

documents.

A slew of indictments followed, and many of the 

defendants—faced with overwhelming evidence, 

including recorded telephone conversations where they 

had discussed their crimes—simply pled guilty.

The legacy of Operation Illwind is significant. The 

scandal so shocked the nation that just five months after 

the case became public, new rules governing federal 

procurement were put into place. The Procurement 

Integrity Act, amended in 1996, remains the law of the 

land.

The multi-agency investigation was also ground-breaking 

for the Bureau, especially in its use of court-authorized 

electronic surveillance—one of the first times we had 

used this tool so extensively in a white-collar crime 

investigation. A quarter century later, the case remains 

the largest and most successful investigation of defense 

procurement fraud in U.S. history.

Building on lessons learned from the case, the FBI 

continues to work with its partners to investigate defense 

procurement fraud and other government scams through 

our public corruption program, which addresses the 

FBI’s number one criminal priority. Using sophisticated 

and traditional investigative techniques, we remain 

committed to exposing procurement fraud not only in the 

Washington, D.C. area, but also around the nation.

Twenty-five years ago today, a major multi-agency 

investigation into defense procurement fraud—later 

codenamed Operation Illwind, a likely reference to an 

old English proverb—was announced to the world via a 

one-page press statement.

By the time the dust had settled several years later, 

the case revealed that some Defense Department 

employees had taken bribes from businesses in 

exchange for inside information on procurement 

bids that helped some of the nation’s largest military 

contractors win lucrative weapons systems deals.

More than 60 contractors, consultants, and government 

officials were ultimately prosecuted—including a highranking Pentagon assistant secretary and a deputy 

assistant secretary of the Navy. As a monetary measure of 

the significance of the crimes, the case resulted in a total 

of $622 million worth of fines, recoveries, restitutions, 

and forfeitures.

The investigation began, as many cases of fraud 

and abuse do, when an honest individual refused to 

take part in criminal activity and instead contacted 

authorities. In 1986, a Virginia defense contractor was 

approached by a military consultant who said he could 

obtain proprietary bid information from a competitor in 

exchange for cash. The contractor did the right thing 

and reported the conversation to the FBI and the Naval 

Investigative Service (NIS)—now called the Naval 

Criminal Investigative Service, or NCIS.
2013 The FBI Story 45

June 17, 2013

Top Ten at 500

Two New Fugitives Added to List

Jose Manuel Garcia Guevara Walter Lee Williams

Since its creation in 1950, the intent of the Top Ten 

list has been to seek the help of the public and the 

media to catch some of the nation’s worst offenders.

That strategy has paid off. Of the 500 fugitives who have 

been named to the list, 469 have been apprehended or 

located. Of those, 155 fugitives have been captured or 

located as a direct result of citizen cooperation.

“This has been a tremendously successful program,” 

Hosko said, “but one that is dependent on the willingness 

of concerned citizens with information to come forward 

and offer us their assistance.”

We need your help. If you have any information about 

Guevara or Williams, please contact your local FBI office, 

the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate, or submit a tip on 

our website.

06/19/13 Update: Walter Lee Williams has been captured.

Note: Jose Manuel Garcia Guevara may have been located 

since the above information was posted on our website. Please 

check our Ten Most Wanted Fugitives webpage at www.fbi.

gov/wanted/topten for up-to-date information.

The FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives program—an 

iconic symbol of the Bureau’s crime-fighting ability 

recognized around the world—has reached a milestone 

with the naming of the 500th fugitive to the Top Ten list.

Jose Manuel Garcia Guevara and Walter Lee 

Williams—numbers 499 and 500, respectively—

are the latest fugitives to be named to the list that 

was established more than six decades ago and has 

included notorious criminals such as bank robber 

Willie Sutton, serial killer Ted Bundy, Centennial 

Park bomber Eric Ruldoph, and terrorist Osama bin 

Laden.

During a ceremony held today near FBI Headquarters 

at the Newseum—a museum dedicated to news and 

journalism—FBI Assistant Director of Public Affairs 

Mike Kortan noted, “The Top Ten program relies heavily 

on the help of citizens and the media. Without their help 

over the years, the FBI could not have located many of 

these individuals.”

Between the two of them, the fugitives named today 

are wanted for a combination of crimes including 

rape, murder, and the sexual exploitation of children. 

Rewards are being offered for information leading to 

the apprehension of both men.

“These individuals are a dangerous menace to society,” 

said Ron Hosko, assistant director of our Criminal 

Investigative Division. “That’s what got criminals on the 

Top Ten list 63 years ago, and that’s why we put them on 

the list today.”

Jose Manuel Garcia Guevara is wanted for unlawful flight 

to avoid prosecution. In 2008, he allegedly broke into the 

mobile home of a 26-year-old woman in Lake Charles, 

Louisiana and raped and stabbed her to death in front of 

her 4-year-old stepson. Guevara is believed to have fled to 

Dallas, Texas and then potentially on to Mexico.

Walter Lee Williams, a former university professor, is 

wanted for allegedly sexually exploiting children and 

traveling abroad for the purpose of engaging in illicit 

sexual acts with children. Williams has an extensive 

history of travel throughout Southeast Asia—specifically 

the Philippines. He may also travel to Mexico and 

Peru. Both Williams and Guevara are considered to be 

extremely dangerous.
46 2013 The FBI Story

James Comey speaks at the White House following his nomination 

by President Barack Obama to be the next Director of the FBI when 

Director Robert S. Mueller’s term ends on September 4. 

June 21, 2013

New FBI Director

President Nominates

James B. Comey at

White House Ceremony

President Barack Obama today nominated James B. 

Comey to serve as the next Director of the FBI. Comey 

must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate before taking 

office.

“Jim is exceptionally qualified to handle the full range 

of challenges faced by today’s FBI,” the president said 

during a ceremony held at the White House. “I am 

confident that Jim will be a leader who understands how 

to keep America safe and to stay true to our founding 

ideals no matter what the future may bring.”

“I want to commend the president for the choice of Jim 

Comey as the next Director of the FBI,” said current 

Director Robert S. Mueller. “I have had the opportunity 

to work with Jim for a number of years at the Department 

of Justice, and I have found him to be a man of honesty, 

dedication, and integrity. His experience, his judgment, 

and his strong sense of duty will benefit not only the 

Bureau but the country as a whole.”

Comey served as deputy attorney general under the 

George W. Bush administration from December 2003 

until August 2005, running the day-to-day operations 

of the Department of Justice. Prior to that, he was U.S. 

Attorney for the Southern District of New York, where 

he prosecuted a number of major terrorism and criminal 

cases. From 1996 to 2001, Comey worked in the U.S. 

Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. 

He has extensive industry experience as well, serving as 

general counsel and senior vice president for Lockheed 

Martin and general counsel for the investment firm 

Bridgewater Associates.

“Just as important as Jim’s extraordinary experience is 

his character,” President Obama said. “Jim understands 

that in times of crisis, we aren’t judged solely by how 

many plots we disrupt or how many criminals we bring 

to justice—we are also judged by our commitment to the 

Constitution that we’ve sworn to defend and to the values 

and civil liberties that we’ve pledged to protect.”

Mueller steps down September 4 after serving 12 

years—his original 10-year term plus a two-year 

extension proposed by the White House and approved 

by Congress in 2011. “I want to take this opportunity 

to thank the men and women of the FBI,” Mueller said. 

“Through their hard work, their dedication, and their 

adaptability, the FBI is better able to predict and prevent 

terrorism and crime.”

If his nomination is confirmed, Comey will be the 11th 

Director in the FBI’s 105-year history—the 7th since the 

J. Edgar Hoover era. When it began in 1908, the Bureau’s 

leader was called “Chief.” Since 1919, the organization’s 

top administrator has been called “Director.” The 

Director has answered directly to the attorney general 

since the 1920s and by law is appointed by the president 

and confirmed by the Senate. In 1976, in reaction to the 

extraordinary 48-year term of Hoover, Congress passed a 

law limiting the FBI Director to a single term of no longer 

than 10 years.
2013 The FBI Story 47

June 25, 2013

Race Against Time

Holiday Bomb Threat Averted

The explosive device, left, found inside a light fixture box at a Home 

Depot store in Long Island, New York. An X-ray shows the device 

inside the actual light fixture.

All the while, a multi-agency team of investigators 

from federal, state, and local law enforcement were 

compiling a list of suspects and working to narrow it 

down. A prime suspect soon emerged—Daniel Patrick 

Sheehan, an employee of the Home Depot store in nearby 

Deer Park.

On November 7—after using a variety of innovative 

investigative techniques—law enforcement located and 

arrested Sheehan in the vicinity of one of the Long Island 

Home Depot locations. Found in Sheehan’s possession 

was the cell phone used to make the threatening phone 

calls to the store.

On June 17, 2013, Sheehan was convicted by a federal 

jury of extorting his employer and using a destructive 

device. As then-FBI New York Acting Assistant Director 

in Charge Mary Galligan said after Sheehan’s arrest, 

“Whatever his motivation ...[Sheenan’s] scheme caused 

economic loss, was a huge drain on law enforcement 

resources, and threatened the safety of untold numbers of 

innocent people, any one of which is unacceptable.”

It was one of those cases like you might see on TV or 

in the movies—where the FBI and its partners work 

feverishly behind the scenes, racing to stop bombs from 

going off and lives from possibly being lost.

But this was real—and the stakes were high. The 

target was one of the nation’s largest retailers in one 

of America’s most populated areas. And the day of 

reckoning was Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of 

the year.

It all started last October 15, when the Home Depot in 

Huntington, New York—a town on the north shore of 

Long Island—received an ominous anonymous note. The 

sender demanded $2 million or he would “shut down” 

three Home Depot stores on Long Island the day after 

Thanksgiving by remotely setting off bombs filled with 

roofing nails using a cell phone. As proof of his ability to 

hide a bomb, he said that he had planted a live device in 

the Huntington store’s lighting department.

The man wasn’t bluffing. Home Depot immediately 

contacted the Suffolk County Police Department, which 

found an operational pipe bomb hidden within a light 

fixture inside a box on a shelf. Bomb techs rendered it 

harmless through a controlled detonation.

Suffolk County and FBI bomb techs later agreed that 

if a store employee or customer had come across the 

bomb and picked it up, it could have exploded. And 

the device made it clear that the bomb-maker knew 

what he was doing.

Two days later, the man called Home Depot and repeated 

his demands. Five days later, the store received a second 

letter, this time lowering the ransom to $1 million and 

setting up a “money drop” for October 26.

According to the criminal complaint filed in the case, on 

the day of the money drop, the bomber intended to be 

“wired up like a Christmas tree” with “2 devices strapped 

to a belt and 1 to a neck chain I will be wearing, wired 

together and attached to a deadman switch in my hand.” 

The man also stated that “to keep from being shot at a 

distance,” he intended to place an additional explosive 

device in a Home Depot store.

But just before the scheduled money drop, the would-bebomber made a second phone call to Home Depot to call 

it off...for the time being.
48 2013 The FBI Story

June 28, 2013

FBI agents at the Oklahoma horse farm that served as a money

laundering front for Los Zetas.

Equine Crime

A Horse Farm of a

Different Color

U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman, who prosecuted the 

case, said after the trial, “The government was able to 

show how the corrupting influence of drug cartels has 

extended into the United States with cartel bosses using 

an otherwise legitimate domestic industry to launder 

proceeds from drug trafficking and other crimes.”

Investigators traced “upwards of $22 million that was 

laundered and shipped back to Mexico,” Villarreal said. 

“And that was just a piece of the operation that we used 

as a snapshot to prove our case in court.”

Villarreal believes that dismantling the horse farm 

operation will hamper the cartel’s ability to launder 

money, and that, in turn, will help restrict its U.S. 

operations. As part of the case, the government seized 

455 horses and will seek a judgment in an upcoming civil 

trial that will include forfeitures of cash, U.S. real estate, 

and three jets that could total more than $70 million.

In Laredo, on the South Texas border, “the Zetas are 

the main criminal threat, responsible for most of the 

violence, kidnappings, human and drug smuggling, 

and related crime,” Villarreal explained. “Across the 

border in Mexico, they have bombed police stations and 

assassinated numerous public officials.” This cartel, he 

said, “has committed countless atrocities, and they are 

responsible for destabilizing the border.”

He added that everyone on the task force—including 

the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Attorney’s Office 

for the Western District of Texas, the Drug Enforcement 

Administration, and other federal, state, and local law 

enforcement agency partners—worked hard to make the 

case against Trevino and his associates.

“Personally,” said Villarreal, who grew up in the region, 

“it is very rewarding to be able to bring justice to these 

ruthless people and to help stop their U.S. operations.”

By outward appearances, the owner of an Oklahoma farm 

bought American quarter horses to train, breed, and race. 

But Jose Trevino Morales, the brother of two leaders of 

the violent and powerful Mexican drug cartel Los Zetas, 

was not just in the horse business: He was using the farm 

as a front to launder millions of dollars of the cartel’s 

illicit profits.

A three-year investigation led by the FBI resulted in 

convictions recently in federal court against Trevino 

and three others for conspiracy to commit money 

laundering. The case was significant because it revealed 

the reach and influence of Los Zetas in the U.S.—and 

it also illustrated how effective our investigators have 

become at targeting the cartel’s leaders.

“Core family members of the cartel and key business 

partners were impacted by this case,” said Special Agent 

David Villarreal, who supervised the investigation from 

our Laredo Resident Agency in Texas. “The FBI is 

targeting the highest echelons of the cartel’s leadership, 

and that sends a strong message not only to the cartel 

but to the people who are laundering their money on the 

American side of the border.”

The investigation, conducted through the Department 

of Justice-run Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task 

Force (OCDETF) program, showed that since 2008, 

Trevino and his associates bought and sold racehorses 

with Los Zetas drug money using shell companies and 

front men. Testimony at trial revealed that during a 

30-month period, the defendants spent $16 million in 

New Mexico, Oklahoma, California, and Texas on the 

horse farm operation.
2013 The FBI Story 49

July 2, 2013

Bomb Technicians

An Equitable Partnership

Between FBI and Navy

bomb technicians across the country. To ensure 

consistency, every bomb technician is certified—and 

recertified every three years—through the Hazardous 

Devices School at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama, run by 

the FBI and the Army. Training with EOD techs, says 

Special Agent Steve Diaczyszyn—who supervises all of 

the Bureau’s special agent bomb technicians—is a key 

facet of the job.

“You never know when the public safety bomb techs and 

the EOD technicians are going to have to work together 

in the interest of public safety,” Diaczyszyn said. He added 

that every field office bomb technician knows their EOD 

counterpart because the military takes the lead when a 

case involves ordnance without a terrorism nexus.

Verdi and his team respond to more than 200 calls 

a year for incidents or suspicious packages. Every 

experience is unique, he says, so it’s important to 

share what you learn. Your life—and the lives of your 

partners—depends on it.

“That’s one of the most important things we get out 

of working and training together with the Navy,” said 

Verdi. “You have to earn their trust. And they have to 

know exactly how you’re going to perform downrange 

in stressful environments, especially when you’re in the 

combat theater. We train regularly so they know exactly 

how we are going to react. And they can depend on us 

when they need to.”

Special Agent James Verdi has traveled to Afghanistan, 

Iraq, and the Horn of Africa to study battlefield 

explosives. The FBI bomb technician embedded with 

the military and applied his specialized skills there to 

find signatures and forensic material on bomb fragments 

and unexploded devices that helped the military piece 

together a clearer picture of its adversaries.

As a certified bomb technician in the Bureau’s San Diego 

Field Office, Verdi is a long way from the battlefield 

today. But he still rolls out regularly with a Navy explosive 

ordnance disposal (EOD) unit—this one based on 

Coronado Island just outside San Diego. During training 

missions, Navy ships and planes drop live ammo on San 

Clemente Island 70 miles off the coast. Clearing the 

remnants is the job of the EOD technicians. Verdi often 

joins them so he can see firsthand how current military 

technicians operate in the field and what they are likely 

to encounter on the ground.

“They invite us along on a lot of their training exercises 

to do range clearance operations,” said Verdi. “That 

teaches us the military ordnance side of the house: what 

bombs, artillery rounds, and munitions look like so we 

can deal with them better if we see them.”

The working relationship in San Diego started about 

a decade ago, when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan 

were ramping up and the military and FBI saw mutual 

benefits to sharing their unique skills and knowledge.

For the FBI, which has played a growing investigative 

role in the war theaters by analyzing improvised explosive 

devices (IEDs) to help pinpoint their sources, the 

relationship is key because the military most frequently 

encounters IEDs. For EOD technicians, training with 

the FBI has opened a window on how explosives can be 

exploited for evidence, like at a crime scene.

“Our jobs are very similar, although we have more 

experience with military ordnance and they have much 

more expertise in the counterterrorism portions of 

the job—like explosives chemical analysis, explosives 

precursor knowledge, and so forth,” said Lt. Abe Kim of 

the Navy’s EOD detachment on Coronado Island. “We 

each bring different things to the table.”

Training together is a rule in the tight community of 

468 bomb squads and more than 3,200 non-military 
50 2013 The FBI Story

July 5, 2013

Terror Financing

Tracking the Money Trails

activities. They can also generate money from criminal 

activities such as kidnappings, extortion, smuggling, and 

fraud. And their financial networks—their methods and 

means of moving money—use both formal systems (i.e., 

banks, licensed money remitters, and the Internet) and 

informal systems (i.e., unlicensed money remitters and 

money couriers).

But TFOS and investigators from our 103 Joint 

Terrorism Task Forces around the country are able to 

apply certain financial investigative techniques—like 

credit history checks, reviews of banking activity, and 

government database inquiries—to counterterrorism 

cases to help track terror money trails. These techniques 

generate a treasure trove of intelligence: personal 

information like citizenship, date of birth, and phone 

numbers; non-terrorism-related criminal activity; 

previously known business and personal associations; 

travel patterns; communication patterns; and suspicious 

purchases.

These techniques can also help link previously unrelated 

cases, create historical timelines, and generate additional 

leads that allow investigators to use more sophisticated 

techniques like court-authorized electronic surveillance.

In addition to working with FBI field offices, the 

men and women of TFOS—experienced agents, 

intelligence analysts, forensic accountants, and other 

professionals—handle critical outreach duties. They 

coordinate efforts with the U.S. intelligence community 

and—through FBI legal attachés—our global intelligence 

and law enforcement partners. They work jointly with 

domestic law enforcement and regulatory communities. 

And, in conjunction with the Treasury Department’s 

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN), they 

conduct liaison with the financial services sector.

TFOS chief Jane Rhodes-Wolfe believes that the 

combined efforts of the financial industry, international 

partners, and federal, state, and local agencies “have 

established an increasingly difficult environment for 

terrorist financiers to operate in undetected...and 

ensure an ongoing and coordinated approach to terrorist 

financing to help prevent future terrorist attacks against 

the U.S.”

The U.S.-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki once wrote 

an essay called “44 Ways to Support Jihad.” Five of his top 

10 strategies focused on the same topic—money.

It’s not surprising. Money fuels the operations of 

terrorists. It’s needed to communicate, buy supplies, fund 

planning, and carry out acts of destruction.

But there’s a flip side to this proverbial coin. In the 

shadowy, secretive world of terrorists, this spending 

leaves a trail—a trail that we can follow to help expose 

extremists and their network of supporters...sometimes 

before they can strike.

That’s why shortly after 9/11, we established the 

Terrorist Financing Operations Section (TFOS).

Within the FBI, TFOS is responsible for following the 

money, providing financial expertise on our terrorism 

investigations, and centralizing efforts to identity 

extremists and shut down terrorism financing in specific 

cases. More recently, TFOS has adopted a broader 

strategy to identity, disrupt, and dismantle all terroristrelated financial and fundraising activities. A key element 

is using financial intelligence to help identify previously 

unknown terrorist cells, recognize potential terrorist 

activity/planning, and develop a comprehensive threat 

picture.

It’s challenging work. The dollar amounts can be 

small—for example, the Oklahoma City bombing cost 

a little over $4,000 to carry out, the attack on the USS 

Cole about $10,000, and the London subway bombings 

around $14,000. At the same time, terror groups can 

obtain funding from seemingly legitimate sources— like 

donations, community solicitations, and other fundraising 
2013 The FBI Story 51

July 9, 2013

Latent Hit of the 

Year Award

Fingerprint Tool Helps

Solve 1999 Murder

The latent print on the left was taken from a store catalog found

at the scene of a 1999 murder of a jeweler. On the right is the

fingerprint from IAFIS matched to the latent print by a San

Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department fingerprint examiner.

James Nursall concluded that the latent print evidence 

was a match to one of the candidates—Jad Salem—who, 

according to IAFIS, had been arrested in Texas two 

weeks after Adams’ murder. He had been stopped for a 

traffic violation but was then arrested on a drug charge, 

and Texas authorities entered Salem’s prints into IAFIS.

Detective Munoz located Salem in San Bernardino. After 

being advised of the fingerprint evidence against him, 

Salem agreed to provide his fingerprints and palmprints 

for comparison against latent evidence collected from 

the crime scene. Fingerprint examiner Nursall concluded 

that Salem’s prints matched the latent prints found on the 

jewelry store door and on the victim’s face.

Salem was arrested and charged with Adams’ murder. 

During an interview, Salem admitted being at the crime 

scene but claimed to have only been a witness. He 

could not, however, explain how his palmprint left a 

bloody impression on the victim’s face. And according 

to courtroom proceedings, Salem and Adams had met 

several times to discuss the purchase of an engagement 

ring.

In the face of this overwhelming evidence, Salem pled 

guilty and was sentenced to 32 years in prison. Proof 

positive of the key role that technology can play in 

identifying dangerous criminals and bringing them to 

justice.

In September 2001, a California sheriff’s department 

linked up electronically with the FBI’s Integrated 

Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or IAFIS, 

through the California Department of Justice. To test 

the system, the department selected as its inaugural 

submission a latent print found at the crime scene of an 

unsolved 1999 murder. IAFIS returned several possible 

matches, and subsequent investigation led to the arrest 

and guilty plea of the man responsible.

And three key individuals involved in this case were 

recently selected for the 2013 Latent “Hit of the 

Year” Award, given annually by our Criminal Justice 

Information Services Division to latent print examiners 

and law enforcement officers for their efforts to solve 

major crimes using IAFIS latent print services.

How the investigation began. On December 2, 1999, the 

San Bernardino Police Department responded to a call 

regarding an unresponsive male on the floor of a jewelry 

store. The victim was identified as 74-year-old Marshall 

Adams, a well known jeweler who worked for 25 years as 

a teacher before opening his own store.

San Bernardino Police detective John Munoz headed 

the investigation, with assistance from the Scientific 

Investigations Division of the San Bernardino County 

Sheriff’s Department. Identification technicians—

including Randy Beasley—collected latent fingerprints, 

palmprints, and blood evidence obtained from a knife, 

doors, and a store catalog. Beasley also discovered a 

bloody palmprint on the victim’s face. Adams had been 

brutally beaten and stabbed, and his wallet and several 

pieces of display case jewelry were missing.

The sheriff’s department processed the crime scene 

evidence and searched all latent prints against their own 

databases. One possible suspect was identified but then 

cleared. With no other leads, the case went cold.

IAFIS proves its mettle. Then, in September 2001, the 

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department joined the 

IAFIS network and sent in a fingerprint from the Adams 

case—specifically, a latent print taken from a jewelry 

catalog. Shortly thereafter, IAFIS responded with a list 

of possible candidates. Supervising fingerprint examiner 
52 2013 The FBI Story

July 12, 2013

Left: Map of Pennsylvania and New Jersey by H.S. Tanner

Map Quest

Seeking Owners of

Stolen Artwork

books. Some of the maps had different titles—many in 

Latin—and could have come from several known copies 

of the same book. To further complicate matters, many 

libraries weren’t even aware they were missing items until 

we contacted them.

“These maps aren’t vehicles with identification numbers 

stamped on them,” Special Agent Stephen J. Kelleher, 

who led the 2006 investigation, said at the time. Special 

Agent Lisa MacNamara, who is working the case now 

from our New Haven Division, added, “Our hope is that 

by reaching out to the public in this way, we can get these 

historical items back to where they belong.”

The items still in our possession include rare maps 

such as an 18th century depiction of the United States 

and a 1683 street plan of Philadelphia, as well as 

several antique books.

After a well-known dealer of rare maps was caught 

stealing from a Yale University library in 2006, a 

subsequent FBI investigation revealed that the man 

had stolen antique maps and other valuable items from 

institutions around the world. Most of the pilfered 

material was eventually returned to its rightful owners—

but not all of it.

We are still in possession of 28 rare maps and books—

some dating to the 17th century—and we would like 

to return them. To that end, we are posting pictures and 

information about the items in the accompanying photo 

gallery in the hopes that the individuals or institutions 

who own them will come forward to claim them.

“These items have been legally forfeited to the U.S. 

government,” said Bonnie Magness-Gardiner, who 

manages the FBI’s Art Theft Program. “Technically, they 

belong to the Bureau now, but we don’t want to keep 

them. Even though we have tried to find the rightful 

owners over the years, we are making another attempt.”

After Edward Forbes Smiley, III was arrested for the Yale 

library theft, he admitted stealing and selling nearly 100 

rare maps from international collections over a period 

of seven years. With Smiley’s cooperation, we tracked 

down most of the dealers and collectors who purchased 

the approximately $3 million worth of stolen material. 

But returning the maps to their homes proved to be a 

daunting task.

In many cases, the maps were cut from books with a razor 

and trimmed so they didn’t look like they came from 

Jeffrey’s Atlas, “St John Newfoundland”

If you believe that one of the maps or books shown in the 

gallery was stolen from your collection, please contact 

Special Agent MacNamara at (203) 503-5268 or send 

an e-mail to artwork@ic.fbi.gov. To claim any of the 

items, you will need to provide evidence of ownership 

and positively identify the item in question. That might 

include—but is not limited to—giving a description 

of special markings or stamps, wear patterns, specific 

damage, or other detailed information.

Note: To view the gallery, visit www.fbi.gov/recoveredart.
2013 The FBI Story 53

July 16, 2013

Homegrown Terrorism

Self-Radicalized American

Incited Violent Jihad Online

Shortly after the bomb-making post, agents obtained 

search warrants for the homes of Begolly’s parents, 

where he often stayed. While the searches were being 

conducted, two other agents approached Begolly at a fast 

food restaurant near Pittsburgh to speak with him. That’s 

when he reached for the loaded handgun in his pocket. 

As the agents subdued him, he bit their fingers, trying 

to free himself and reach for his gun. His actions were 

consistent with a previous online post in which he urged 

jihadists not to be taken alive by law enforcement and to 

always carry a loaded firearm.

“When you combine troubling rhetoric that escalates 

with weapons, it poses a tremendous threat to public 

safety,” McGuire said. “Fortunately, we headed off any 

potential danger before it happened.”

Those who have met Emerson Begolly in person might 

describe him as a shy young man. But online, the 24-

year-old was the complete opposite—he forcefully incited 

jihadist violence against Americans and Jews. And when 

FBI agents attempted to talk to him in 2011, he reached 

for a loaded handgun in his pocket and then bit the 

agents who disarmed him.

Today, a federal judge sentenced Begolly to eight years 

and six months in prison for soliciting others to engage 

in acts of terrorism within the United States and for 

using a firearm in relation to an assault on FBI agents.

Begolly pled guilty in August 2011 after being indicted 

less than a month earlier.

“This is a guy who definitely had the potential to hurt 

people,” said Special Agent Blake McGuire, who led 

part of the investigation from our Pittsburgh office. “He 

was a disaffected U.S. citizen who was susceptible to 

the message of violent extremism, and he became selfradicalized on the Internet. That type of offender—the 

so-called lone wolf—is extremely dangerous,” McGuire 

added, “because they can be difficult to discover before 

they resort to violence.”

Begolly came to the FBI’s attention in 2010 when he 

began posting violent material on an Islamic extremist 

Internet forum. Using the pseudonym Abu Nancy, the 

Pennsylvania resident and occasional college student 

solicited fellow jihadists to use firearms and explosives 

against American police stations, post offices, Jewish 

schools and daycare centers, military facilities, train lines, 

and water plants. He further urged his audience to “write 

their legacy in blood” and promised a special place in the 

afterlife for violent action in the name of Allah.

Members of the Bureau’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces in 

Pittsburgh and in Northern Virginia worked on the case 

with U.S. attorneys in both jurisdictions. “We all shared 

the same concern,” McGuire said, “that something might 

trigger this young man to carry out his own personal 

jihad.”

Begolly was under surveillance during the summer of 

2010 when he legally purchased an assault weapon.

Several months later, he escalated his online postings by 

soliciting jihadists to violence by posting a manual on 

how to manufacture a bomb.
54 2013 The FBI Story

July 19, 2013

Cheating in Contracts

A $30 Million Case of Corruption

It’s been billed as the “largest domestic bribery and 

bid-rigging scheme in the history of federal contracting 

cases.”

Specifically, over a five-year period, more than $30 

million was illegally siphoned from federal coffers 

by a ring of crooked public officials and government 

contractors in the D.C. area operating via bribes, 

kickbacks, and other dirty dealings.

A big fix, especially in lean budget times. The plot was 

thickening, too—a billion-dollar government contract 

was about to be steered illegally into favored hands in 

exchange for sizeable payments under the table.

But ultimately the hammer fell, and fell hard, following 

a massive, multi-year investigation by the FBI and its 

partners called Five Aces (a reference to cheating by 

stacking the deck) that came to light in October 2011 

after the first arrests. A total of 15 federal employees and 

contractors—plus one company, Nova Datacom—have 

since pled guilty. That includes the mastermind of the 

conspiracy, Kerry Khan, who just last week was sentenced 

to nearly 20 years in prison.

Khan, while serving as a program manager and 

contracting officer’s technical representative for the U.S. 

Army Corps of Engineers, cooked up the bribery scheme 

in 2006 with his co-worker Michael Alexander to take 

their own piece of the contracting pie.

The case evolved into a complicated conspiracy, 

involving six different companies and several shady 

practices. The FBI began its investigation in the summer 

of 2009, when we received a tip indicating that an area 

business was submitting phony references and evaluations 

to boost its chances of getting government contracts. 

The company, we discovered, also had a disabled veteran 

falsely posing as its owner—which gave it an advantage 

under federal contracting laws.

We soon learned that Khan and his criminal colleague 

had created a network of crooked contractors who 

agreed to pay them bribes and kickbacks in exchange 

for winning deals. In most of those cases, the contracts 

were fulfilled and the work done, but often times there 

were extra charges disguised as “overhead” on the bills...

and most of that money ended up in Khan’s pockets. 

In other instances, Khan awarded contracts to straw 

subcontractors and paid fake invoices submitted by the 

fictitious companies.

For the members of the criminal conspiracy, it was a 

lucrative enterprise—especially for Khan, who was 

paid, directly and indirectly, more than $12 million.

Khan used the money to live large: in addition to paying 

off his mortgage and remodeling his house, he purchased 

flat screen TVs, computers, luxury watches, airline 

tickets, accommodations in five-star hotels, high-end 

liquor, and a dozen properties in three states. And 

apparently, money is thicker than blood in some cases—

Khan got his son and brother involved in the scheme 

(both have since pled guilty).

Five Aces was a multi-agency undertaking from the 

start, with the FBI and its partners uncovering vital 

evidence using sophisticated investigative techniques, 

including consensual recordings by cooperating witnesses 

and court-authorized wiretaps. We heard details about 

crimes directly from the mouths of the criminals 

committing them.

Justice has been served, and, just as importantly, more 

than $32 million is being rightfully returned to the U.S. 

government and the American people. It’s another case 

in point as to why the FBI continues to focus squarely on 

public corruption as its top criminal investigative priority.
2013 The FBI Story 55

July 23, 2013

All in the Family 

Part 1: Husband, Wife, and Son 

Stole Millions from Armored Cars

Local authorities and FBI investigators called in to help 

with the case immediately became suspicious when they 

learned that Archie and Vincent had been “victims” of 

similar crimes in Milwaukee six years earlier. A search 

warrant executed about a week after the Portland heist 

turned up credit cards and cash, but not enough to 

connect the family to the robbery.

“We knew the Cabellos weren’t being honest about what 

happened,” said Special Agent Kenneth O’Connor, who 

worked the case from our Portland Division, “but initially, 

there was not a lot of evidence linking them to the 

crime.” After months of surveillance and investigation, 

the case grew cold.

But thanks to the diligence of our investigators, along 

with the Internal Revenue Service and the U.S. 

Attorney’s Office in Portland, the Cabellos’ luck was 

about to run out...

Part 2: Following the money (page 56)

A shaken driver handcuffed to the door of his armored 

car. Millions of dollars stolen. An investigation involving 

turncoat family members, and an indictment handed 

down just days before the statute of limitations ran out.

It may sound like the plot of a Hollywood thriller, 

but that’s how the long saga of the Cabello family 

unfolded—in a crime spree spanning more than a 

decade that finally landed Archie and Marian Cabello 

and their son, Vincent, behind bars.

It all began in 1995 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, while 

Archie was employed as an armored car driver. One day, 

he arranged for his wife to meet him on his route, where 

he handed her a bag containing more than $157,000. 

He later told the police that the money had simply 

disappeared.

Three years later, the couple recruited their son into the 

family crime business. Vincent took a job working as a 

vault clerk for an armored truck company. One night, 

Archie—wearing a hat and fake beard and using a BB 

gun as a prop—staged a robbery at the company during 

his son’s work shift, cuffing Vincent’s hands and legs. 

While Vincent played the victim, Archie made off with 

$730,000 in cash. Authorities never charged anyone in 

the 1995 or 1998 thefts.

The Cabellos moved to Portland, Oregon in 1999, and 

father and son took jobs working for security or delivery 

companies. The family seemed to lay low until 2005, 

when Archie took a new job as an armored truck driver. 

By December of that year—believing they had gotten 

away with the two previous robberies—the family was 

ready for another heist.

On December 6, 2005, Archie was driving an 

armored car loaded with $7 million in cash, including 

two shrink-wrapped bricks containing $1.5 million 

each. Using disposable cell phones provided by Marian, 

father and son arranged a meeting point, where Archie 

passed off both bundles of cash—$3 million in hundreddollar bills—to Vincent, who concealed it in a duffel bag. 

Playing the victim this time, Archie drove the armored 

truck several blocks away, handcuffed himself to the truck 

door, and flagged down a passerby to call police. Vincent, 

meanwhile, made his getaway and stashed the loot in a 

safe deposit box in Bellevue, Washington.
56 2013 The FBI Story

July 26, 2013

All in the Family

Part 2: On the Trail of

Armored Car Robbers

A few days before the statute of limitations ran out in 

December 2010, a federal grand jury handed down a 

51-count indictment accusing Archie, Vincent, and 

Marian of conspiring to stage the Portland robbery and 

the two Milwaukee thefts and to launder the proceeds. 

Though released pending trial, the three were ordered to 

surrender their passports and wear electronic monitoring 

devices.

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland did an 

outstanding job of devising a prosecution strategy and 

presenting evidence to the grand jury about all the 

robberies,” O’Connor explained, “so that everyone 

understood how brazen and far-reaching these crimes 

were.”

In February 2012, Vincent—who had started to turn 

his life around while on pre-trial release, taking college 

classes and getting engaged to be married—began 

cooperating and led investigators to nearly $2 million in 

cash in a safe deposit box.

“That was a critical point in the case,” O’Connor said. 

“The safe deposit box was set up under an assumed 

name—there was nothing that connected it to the family, 

and we hadn’t discovered it.”

Faced with more than 30,000 pages of evidence against 

him plus the testimony of his co-conspirators (Marian 

had also eventually agreed to testify against her husband), 

Archie pled guilty to each of the eight substantive counts 

the morning his trial was set to begin. In March 2013, 

a judge sentenced him to 20 years in federal prison for 

his role in the decade-long crime spree. Marian and 

Vincent each received 15-month sentences. The family 

was ordered to pay restitution of nearly $4 million to the 

victims of the thefts.

“Most Americans get by with hard work and sacrifice,” 

said FBI Portland Special Agent in Charge Greg Fowler 

at the time of the sentencing. “The Cabellos spent years 

scamming the system, stealing millions of dollars to pay 

their bills. Now they are rightly being held accountable 

for their crimes thanks to the great partnership between 

the FBI and the IRS.”

Beginning in 1995, the Cabello family—husband Archie, 

wife Marian, and son Vincent—had managed to steal 

nearly $4 million in cash from armored car companies in 

three robberies over a period of 10 years, all while eluding 

authorities. But their crimes were about to earn them 

something they hadn’t bargained for—justice.

Our agents had suspected the family since a 2005 

Portland, Oregon armored car robbery in which $3 

million in cash was stolen, but there was not enough 

evidence to charge the Cabellos with the crime—that 

is, until we started to follow their spending habits.

“They were spending money they didn’t have,” said 

Special Agent Kenneth O’Connor, who joined the case 

in 2008 from our Portland Division. “They bought things 

and paid rent and utilities with more than 50 credit cards, 

and then used money orders purchased with the stolen 

cash to pay off the credit cards.”

O’Connor knew the case would require a lot of 

sophisticated financial investigation, so he asked the 

Internal Revenue Service for assistance. “I knew the IRS 

was well-versed in that kind of work,” O’Connor said, 

“and from the beginning, it was a great partnership.”

The joint investigation revealed that the Cabellos had 

spent more than $245,000 between 2006 and 2009 but 

claimed less than $35,000 in income on tax returns. The 

family had hoped to avoid suspicion by sticking to mostly 

small-scale purchases like cigars, running shoes, and used 

vehicles—but the numbers didn’t lie.
2013 The FBI Story 57

July 29, 2013

Operation Cross Country

Recovering Victims of

Child Sex Trafficking

Assistance, Alex is turning her life around. She earned 

her high school diploma, is living on her own, and has 

plans to attend college. She wants to become an advocate 

for young victims of sexual exploitation.

“What happened to me happened, and I can’t change it,” 

she said. “I can only change my future.”

Special Agent Kurt Ormberg, who helped recover Alex 

and put her pimp behind bars, explained that children 

who are most susceptible to sexual exploitation have a 

void in their lives. “That void might be related to family, 

food, or shelter, but it’s a void that needs to be filled, and 

pimps fill it.” And after they nurture their victims, he 

said, they sexually exploit them. “Too often,” Ormberg 

added, “these young victims don’t think they have 

anywhere else to turn.”

“I was very lucky to be able to walk away,” Alex said. “I 

never got hurt, so I’m really, really lucky. I’m one of the 

few that can say that.” Without the help of the FBI, she 

added, “I probably would have ended up dead.”

Forty-seven FBI divisions took part in Operation Cross 

Country VII, along with more than 3,900 local, state, and 

federal law enforcement officers and agents representing 

230 separate agencies.

Operation Cross Country—a three-day nationwide 

enforcement action focusing on underage victims of 

prostitution—has concluded with the recovery of 105 

sexually exploited children and the arrests of 150 pimps 

and other individuals.

The sweep took place in 76 cities and was carried out 

by the FBI in partnership with local, state, and federal 

law enforcement agencies and the National Center 

for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) as part 

of the Bureau’s Innocence Lost National Initiative. It 

is the seventh and largest such enforcement action to 

date.

“Child prostitution remains a persistent threat to children 

across America,” said Ron Hosko, assistant director of the 

FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “This operation 

serves as a reminder that these abhorrent crimes can 

happen anywhere and that the FBI remains committed 

to stopping this cycle of victimization and holding the 

criminals who profit from this exploitation accountable.”

Since its creation in 2003, the Innocence Lost National 

Initiative has resulted in the identification and recovery 

of more than 2,700 children who have been sexually 

exploited. Behind those numbers are the stories of real 

victims.

Alex was one such victim. At age 15, faced with a 

difficult family situation at home, she decided to leave 

and stay with a girlfriend and then an aunt. When that 

didn’t work out, she found herself on the street—with an 

abusive boyfriend who wanted to pimp her out.

“You learn quickly that the only people who are really 

willing to feed you, clothe you, and shelter you are your 

parents,” she said. “So I had to figure something out.” 

Alex was 16 years old and desperate. She turned to 

prostitution and later fell under the influence of a pimp 

and her family. “At first it was terrifying, and then you 

just kind of become numb to it,” she said. “You put on a 

whole different attitude—like a different person. It wasn’t 

me. I know that. Nothing about it was me.”

Two years later, Alex bravely contacted the FBI, and 

her cooperation helped us send two pimps to prison 

and facilitate the recovery of other underage victims.

Today, with support from the Bureau’s Office for Victim 

Scan this QR code with your smartphone

to access related videos and additional information, or visit www.fbi.gov/occvii.
58 2013 The FBI Story

August 1, 2013

Left: Pirated software like this could be laced with malicious

software, or malware.

Consumer Alert

Pirated Software May

Contain Malware

And the risks to unsuspecting consumers? For starters, 

the inferior and infected software may not work properly. 

Your operating system may slow down and fail to receive 

critical security updates.

But the greater danger comes from potential exposure 

to criminal activity—like identity theft and financial 

fraud—after malware takes hold of your system.

Some very real dangers:

▪ Once installed on a computer, malware can record 

your keystrokes (capturing sensitive usernames and 

passwords) and steal your personally identifiable 

information (including Social Security numbers and 

birthdates), sending it straight back to criminals 

and hackers. It can also corrupt the data on your 

computer and even turn on your webcam and/or 

microphone.

▪ Malware can spread to other computers through 

removable media like thumb drives and through 

e-mails you send to your family, friends, and 

professional contacts. It can be spread through shared 

connections to a home, business, or even government 

network. Criminals can also use infected computers 

to launch attacks against other computers or against 

websites via denial of service attacks.

To guard against malware and other threats,

read our tips on how to protect your computer at

www.fbi.gov/scams-safety. If you think you may have 

purchased pirated software, or if you have information 

about sellers of pirated software, submit a tip to the

IPR Center or the Internet Crime Complaint Center.

And know this: Pirated software is just one of the many 

threats that the IPR Center and the FBI are combating 

every year. The theft of U.S. intellectual property—the 

creative genius of the American people as expressed 

through everything from proprietary products and trade 

secrets to movies and music—takes a terrible toll on 

the nation. It poses significant (and sometimes lifethreatening) risks to ordinary consumers, robs businesses 

of billions of dollars, and takes away jobs and tax revenue.

Learn more by visiting the IPR Center website at 

www.iprcenter.gov and the FBI’s intellectual property 

theft webpage at www.fbi.gov/ipr.

You decide to order some software from an unknown 

online seller. The price is so low you just can’t pass it up. 

What could go wrong?

Plenty. Whether you’re downloading it or buying a 

physical disc, the odds are good that the product is 

pirated and laced with malicious software, or malware.

Today, the National Intellectual Property Rights 

Coordination (IPR) Center—of which the FBI is a key 

partner—is warning the American people about the 

real possibility that illegally copied software, including 

counterfeit products made to look authentic, could 

contain malware.

Our collective experience has shown this to be true, both 

through the complaints we’ve received and through our 

investigations. It’s also been validated by industry studies, 

which show that an increasing amount of software 

installed on computers around the world—including in 

the U.S.—is pirated and that this software often contains 

malware.

As in our above scenario, pirated software can be 

obtained from unknown sellers and even from peerto-peer networks. The physical discs can be purchased 

from online auction sites, less-than-reputable websites, 

and sometimes from street vendors and kiosks. Pirated 

software can also be found pre-installed on computers 

overseas, which are ordered by consumers online and 

then shipped into the United States.

Who’s behind this crime? Criminals, hackers and hacker 

groups, and even organized crime rings.
2013 The FBI Story 59

August 5, 2013

Election Hack

Stealing Votes the Cyber Way

theft, wire fraud, and unauthorized access of a 

computer. At his sentencing last month, the federal 

judge who sent Weaver to prison noted that Weaver 

trying to frame others for his crime is “the phenomenal 

misjudgment I just can’t get around. That’s what bothers 

me more than the original rigging of the election.”

The investigators agreed, noting that while it was wrong 

for Weaver to try and steal the election, “what we were 

really concerned about was the privacy of those students 

whose identities he stole,” Chabalko said. Prosecutors 

from the U.S. Attorney’s Office felt the same way, writing 

in their sentencing memorandum, “Weaver determinedly 

and repeatedly spied on his classmates, stole their 

passwords, read their secrets, and usurped their votes—

and he did it with his eyes wide open.”

Weaver has a restitution hearing set for August 12, at 

which time the judge will hear evidence regarding the 

losses incurred by his victims. While the court has yet 

to determine those losses, Weaver and his friends on 

the ballot would have collected $36,000 in stipends and 

controlled a student budget of $300,000 if his vote-rigging 

plan had succeeded.

A 22-year-old candidate for student council president 

at California State University San Marcos hoped to 

guarantee victory by rigging the election through cyber 

fraud, but he ended up winning a year in prison instead.

Matthew Weaver used small electronic devices called 

keyloggers to steal the passwords and identities of 

nearly 750 fellow students. Then he cast votes for 

himself—and some of his friends on the ballot—using 

the stolen names. He was caught during the final hour of 

the election in March 2012, when network administrators 

noticed unusual voting activity associated with a single 

computer on campus. A Cal State police officer sent to 

investigate found Weaver working at that machine. He 

had cast more than 600 votes for himself using the stolen 

identities.

“Some people wanted to paint this as a college prank 

gone bad, but he took the identities of almost 750 people, 

and that’s a serious thing,” said Special Agent Charles 

Chabalko, who worked the investigation out of our 

San Diego Division after being contacted by Cal State 

authorities. “He had access to these students’ e-mails, 

financial information, and their social networks. He had 

access to everything.”

Weaver installed keyloggers—inexpensive devices easily 

purchased on the Internet—on 19 different campus 

computers. Those who used the machines were unaware 

that Weaver could later retrieve every keystroke they 

made, enabling him to obtain their usernames and 

passwords and then gain access to all their information.

When cyber investigator Chabalko and his partner, 

Special Agent Nick Arico, analyzed Weaver’s laptop after 

his arrest, they found a spreadsheet that included the 

names of all the people whose identities he had stolen. 

“He kept a detailed accounting,” Chabalko said.

And that’s not all investigators found. Weaver had 

made online searches that included topics such as “jail 

time for keylogger” and “how to rig an election.”

“He knew what he did was wrong,” Chabalko said. “And 

even after he was caught, he didn’t want to own up to 

what he did. He tried to cover up his actions and blame 

his crime on other students.”

The evidence against Weaver was overwhelming, 

however, and he pled guilty in March 2013 to identity 
60 2013 The FBI Story

August 8, 2013

Left: A copy of a 1908 report prepared by Samuel Allred, one of our 

first agents. 

A Byte Out of History

Civil Rights Case

One of Our First

was a son of the man that had Dixon arrested.

For the next week, Allred and Donnella traveled to 

Rose Hill and surrounding areas by train, horse, 

buggy, and even on foot, interviewing potential 

witnesses. With enough evidence gathered, they met 

with the U.S. district attorney in Greenville, who issued 

warrants for the arrest of the Fussells on a charge of 

peonage. The father and son were apprehended by a 

deputy U.S. marshal (Bureau agents were not authorized 

to make arrests at that time) and later released on $1,000 

bond. Prior to the grand jury hearing in November, 

Allred and Donnella canvassed potential witnesses, 

especially Wills and Dixon, to make sure they were 

available for the hearing in Raleigh. The agents’ work was 

successful—on November 27, the jury indicted the two 

Fussells and a third man.

The matter was 

placed on the court’s 

docket for May of the 

following year. What 

happened after that 

is unknown. If it was 

like many cases of 

that time, the Fussells 

probably pled guilty, 

paid a fine, and were 

given a short sentence 

that was then 

suspended. It’s also 

possible the two were 

acquitted; peonage 

was so accepted in the day that juries in many areas 

would not convict even in the most horrendous cases.

The young Bureau’s focus on peonage was short lived. 

Although it didn’t disappear as a criminal violation, 

subsequent court rulings made certain types of peonage 

hard to prove. Other legal, social, and economic measures 

sapped the strength of civil rights protections for black 

Americans. Bureau agents experienced such investigative 

frustrations for many years, but five decades ago in the 

1960s, the tide began to turn. Stay tuned for more stories 

on that subject in the months to come.

The new special agent force announced by Attorney 

General Charles Bonaparte on July 26, 1908—the 

forerunner of today’s FBI—was just days old when a 

civil rights crime in North Carolina led to one of its first 

investigations.

In the early morning hours of August 3, an AfricanAmerican laborer named Arthur Dixon was arrested in 

Goldsboro for owing a debt of $4.20. Later that morning, 

he was tied with a rope and carried off to a nearby town 

to begin paying off his debt through forced labor.

It was a case of peonage—compelling a person to work 

to repay money owed. A fundamental denial of freedom 

without due process—and a practice that sometimes 

trapped people in a form of slavery when debts were never 

allowed to be fully repaid—peonage became a federal 

crime in 1867. Although rare in the late 1800s, peonage 

had become a regular practice in certain industries and 

parts of America by the early 20th century, and the 

Department of Justice was routinely investigating such 

cases.

Upon learning of the crime, two of our first agents—

Samuel Nelson Allred and Schuyler A. Donnella—began 

investigating. They spoke first to Dixon’s brother-in-law, 

a man named A. Wills, who was renting Dixon a room 

in his house. He said the pair was awakened at 3 a.m. by 

a police officer named High Ward, a constable of Rose 

Hill named Asa Fussell, and another man. Dixon was 

told he was under arrest for a debt owed to J.H. Fussell, 

whose family was prominent in local business and politics 

in Rose Hill. Wills told the agents that Constable Fussell 

Samuel N. Allred
2013 The FBI Story 61

August 13, 2013

Seeking the Public’s 

Assistance

New Information Released in

Serial Killer Case

connect the person to Keyes or not,” Goeden explained. 

“We have his DNA.”

It’s a painstaking process, made more complicated 

because Keyes was meticulous about covering his tracks. 

In the Currier case, for example, he flew from Alaska to 

Chicago, rented a car, and drove 1,000 miles to Vermont, 

where he searched for victims. He chose the Curriers at 

random.

Keyes also left “murder kits” in various locations around 

the country that contained, among other items, weapons 

and cash—the money came from bank robberies he 

committed to support his criminal activities. The caches 

provided further cover because Keyes didn’t have to risk 

boarding an airplane with a weapon or using credit cards 

that could later connect him to a crime in a particular 

area.

“Although he chose many of his victims randomly, a 

tremendous amount of planning went into these crimes,” 

Goeden said. “Keyes enjoyed what he did, and he had 

no remorse at all. He told us if he hadn’t been caught, he 

would have continued kidnapping and murdering people.”

We need your help. If you have any information 

regarding Keyes, please contact your local FBI office or 

submit a tip online.

“That fact that Keyes is dead makes it more difficult 

for us,” Goeden said, “but the investigation absolutely 

continues.”

After Israel Keyes was arrested for the murder of 18-

year-old Samantha Koenig in Alaska in 2012, authorities 

realized that the man they had in custody was a prolific 

serial killer. Keyes freely admitted as much.

During conversations with investigators, the 34-yearold sometime construction worker revealed the names 

of two additional victims—along with tantalizing 

clues about other murders he had committed around 

the country over a period of years. But last December, 

Keyes killed himself in his Anchorage jail cell, leaving a 

trail of unanswered questions and unidentified victims.

Those victims have not been forgotten, however. Today 

we are releasing new information in the hopes that the 

public can help us identify others who died by Keyes’ 

hands. The information includes extensive videotaped 

conversations with Keyes in jail and an interactive map 

that contains a detailed timeline of his known movements 

beginning in 1997.

“He gave us a number of clues,” said Special Agent Jolene 

Goeden in our Anchorage Division. “He talked openly 

about some of the homicides, but much of what he said 

only hinted at the things he had done. So we are trying 

to get information out there about what he did tell us. We 

are letting the public know the types of cars he rented, 

towns he visited, campgrounds he frequented. Anything 

that might spur someone’s memory could help us,” 

Goeden said.

Apart from Koenig, who was abducted from the 

Anchorage coffee stand where she worked, and Bill and 

Lorraine Currier, a middle-aged married couple who were 

murdered in 2011 in Vermont, Keyes discussed “seven or 

eight other victims,” Goeden said. “We want to identify 

them.”

Investigators believe that Keyes killed and buried a victim 

in upstate New York in April 2009. “He also told us about 

a couple in Washington state, another victim in that area, 

and possibly others in surrounding states,” Goeden said.

FBI agents are working with law enforcement around 

the country to link Keyes to open cases. “If we have 

a missing person identified in a particular area, we 

work closely with that local police department to either 

Suspected serial killer Israel Keyes

Scan this QR code with your smartphone

to access related videos, photos, audio clips, 

and timeline, or visit www.fbi.gov/israelkeyes.
62 2013 The FBI Story

August 16, 2013

Coin Crime

The Case of the Parking

Meter Thief

“The bank never suspected,” Gross said, “because 

Bagarozzo told the tellers he had a friend with a vending 

machine business. He developed such a good relationship 

with the bank tellers,” Gross explained, “that they 

eventually gave him boxes to use that held exactly $500 

worth of quarters. He went to the bank several times a 

week with a $500 box of quarters and got cash in return.”

The scam might have continued indefinitely if not for 

the appointment of a new parking commissioner, who 

noticed a significant difference in revenue between 

the city’s mechanical meters and newer electronic 

machines. In September 2010, the city’s Division 

of Parking Enforcement began an investigation that 

expanded to include the Buffalo Police Department, 

and eventually the local authorities asked the FBI for 

assistance.

Bagarozzo and Charles—who is scheduled to be 

sentenced in two weeks—were caught on video 

committing the thefts on a daily basis. “Unless you were 

really paying attention,” Gross said, “it looked like they 

were fixing the meters. In reality, they were stealing from 

them.”

In September 2012, Bagarozzo pled guilty to theft from 

programs receiving federal funds and agreed to pay 

restitution of $210,000. According to the U.S. attorney 

who prosecuted the case, Bagarozzo used the meter 

money to pay for personal and family expenses.

“This case is a classic example of how public corruption 

strikes at the heart of government’s ability to serve its 

people,” said Richard Frankel, acting special agent in 

charge of our Buffalo Division. “We are gratified to see 

justice served in this case,” he said, adding that “the FBI 

remains vigilant against all forms of public corruption.”

A longtime employee of the city of Buffalo, New York was 

sentenced to 30 months in jail today for stealing more 

than $200,000—all in quarters—from the city’s parking 

meters over a period of eight years.

James Bagarozzo, who had been employed by the 

city for more than three decades, became a parking 

meter mechanic in 2003—but instead of repairing the 

meters, he and an accomplice rigged more than 75 of 

them so he could steal quarters. Over time, his smallchange crime added up.

“When he went to work,” said Special Agent Rob Gross, 

who investigated the case out of our Buffalo Division, 

“half of his day was spent stealing from the city.” After 

Bagarozzo and fellow city employee Lawrence Charles 

were arrested in December 2011, investigators found 

some $47,000 in cash and quarters in Bagarozzo’s home, 

including $40,000 hidden in his bedroom ceiling.

As a parking meter mechanic, Bagarozzo was supposed to 

service and repair the city’s 1,200 mechanical meters, but 

he didn’t have access to their coin canisters and was not 

authorized to collect money. Instead, he rigged the meters 

so that deposited quarters never dropped into the coin 

canisters. Then he retrieved the money for himself.

Beginning in 2003 and continuing until the time of 

his arrest years later, the 57-year-old stole thousands 

upon thousands of quarters, using bags in his car or his 

deep-pocketed work pants to transfer the loot to his 

home, where he rolled the change in coin wrappers and 

exchanged it for cash at the bank.
2013 The FBI Story 63

August 20, 2013

Legal Attaché Manila

Then and Now

In 1961, Robert B. Hawley opened the first FBI legal attaché in 

Manila in rooms 416 and 418 of the U.S. Embassy office building. In 

1962, Hawley moved the office next door (left rear) to the old U.S. 

High Commissioner’s residence, converted to the Chancery. Manila 

Bay is in the background.

in 1995, the Philippine National Police uncovered bomb 

and terrorist plots in Manila by terrorist Ramzi Yousef 

and worked with us to bring him to justice.

Today, Legat Gib Wilson runs a complex operation 

from the second floor of the Chancery on Roxas 

Boulevard, in the very office that Bob Hawley built 

out. Beyond working with Philippine authorities on 

fugitive and terrorism cases, the office focuses on 

human trafficking issues, child sex tourism, and cyber 

crimes. Last year, with the superb support of its Filipino 

colleagues, Legat Manila returned 37 fugitives to the U.S. 

through deportation, renditions, and extraditions. Still 

at large in the area of terrorism alone: several extremist 

leaders wanted by the FBI via the Rewards for Justice 

program, including Abdul Basit Usman, Khair Mundos, 

and Zulkarnaen. Three are also on the FBI’s Most 

Wanted Terrorist list: Raddulan Sahiron and Isnilon 

Totoni Hapilon of the Abu Sayyef Group and Zulkifli 

Abdhir of al Qaeda affiliate Jemaah Islamiya. Please let us 

know if you can provide any information that would help 

us find them.

In August 1961—52 years ago—Special Agent Robert B. 

Hawley reported to the new U.S. Embassy office building 

on Manila Bay to open a small legal attaché (or legat) 

office that would cover criminal and intelligence matters 

in the Philippines.

It was not the first time FBI agents had served in the 

Philippines, though. In 1939, the Bureau had considered 

opening a regular domestic resident agency there, as the 

Philippines was still technically part of the United States. 

But it wasn’t until March 1, 1945—two days shy of finally 

wresting Manila from Japanese troops—that General 

Douglas MacArthur invited an FBI liaison agent to serve 

there with General Thorpe’s Army Counter Intelligence 

Corps. Special Agent Fred Tillman, a Japanese specialist, 

arrived in a city almost completely destroyed by bombs. 

His job: to work with the Corps’ internal security section 

on postwar Japanese and related matters. He was installed 

in the Uy Su Bin Building on Quintin Paredes Street, 

given access to a Women’s Army Corps steno and a 

Jeep, and set to work. Six months later, he left with 

Generals MacArthur and Thorpe for Tokyo, ultimately 

participating in the Pearl Harbor hearings in Washington 

and testifying at the “Tokyo Rose” trial in San Francisco. 

His colleague, Special Agent Nicolas Alaga, closed the 

Manila office in 1946.

By the time Bob Hawley arrived 15 years later, Manila 

had been transformed—booming, rebuilt, and once again 

known as a “Pearl of the Orient.” He was responsible 

for police liaison in the Philippines, Singapore, and 

Thailand—then the Federation of Malaya and South 

Vietnam, too. It was a huge territory. Crime was on 

the rise, as were anti-American sentiments across Asia. 

Hundreds of U.S. fugitives needed to be tracked down, 

and communist-led intelligence operations against the 

United States proliferated. Hawley worked closely in 

all these areas with the Philippine National Bureau of 

Investigation under the leadership of Jose Lukban, then 

Jolly Bugarin, effectively building the foundation for 

wider, deeper, and more productive relationships with 

the full suite of today’s Filipino law enforcement and 

intelligence agencies.

Twice since then, Legat Manila has been closed in 

response to government economy measures, then 

reopened to respond to new threats—most recently in 

1988 with the rise of terrorism, the illegal drug trade, 

fugitive matters, and international organized crime. And 
64 2013 The FBI Story

August 23, 2013

Serial Bank Robber

Help Us Catch the Loan

Ranger Bandit

“He usually wears different hats,” Di Lisi said, “but he 

makes no effort to cover his face.” Di Lisi noted that 

despite his lack of a disguise, the Loan Ranger Bandit 

is clever. He picks stand-alone institutions that offer 

easy access to major roadways—and therefore quick 

getaways—and he often targets the same banks more 

than once. “He’s very confident in what he’s doing,” Di 

Lisi said. “I believe he’s going to keep hitting banks until 

we catch him.”

The bandit is described as a white male in his early 30s, 

approximately 5’7” inches to 6’ tall, about 200 pounds, 

with a medium build. He has short, light brown hair, 

wears glasses, and has a small mole or mark just above 

his right eye on the lower part of his forehead. His varied 

clothing styles have included athletic wear, jeans, and 

business attire. He may also drive a maroon Chevrolet 

S-10 pickup truck with a white pinstripe around the truck 

bed. He should be considered armed and dangerous and 

should not be approached.

More information about the Loan Ranger Bandit, along 

with a number of detailed surveillance pictures, can be 

viewed on bankrobbers.fbi.gov, the Bureau’s national 

website that features wanted bank robbers.

We need your help: If you have any information 

about the Loan Ranger Bandit, contact your local FBI 

office, submit a tip online, or call 1-800-CALL-FBI. 

Any information, even if it seems small, may be the 

connection we need to solve these crimes—and make you 

eligible for the $10,000 reward.

“It’s been almost four years, and he’s still out there,” Di 

Lisi said. “With the public’s help, we need to catch this 

guy before he strikes again.”

Note: The Loan Ranger bandit may have been located since 

the above information was posted on our website. Please 

check our Wanted Bank Robbers website at bankrobbers.fbi.

gov for up-to-date information.

Over the past four years, a man authorities have dubbed 

the Loan Ranger Bandit has committed at least a dozen 

armed robberies of banks and other financial institutions 

in four different states—and he is so brazen he doesn’t 

bother covering his face.

“We have a lot of good surveillance photos where he 

is looking directly at the camera,” said Special Agent 

Russell Di Lisi, who is coordinating the investigation 

from our Dallas Division. “Somebody out there has to 

know him or recognize him, and that’s why we need the 

public’s help.”

A reward of up to $10,000 is being offered for information 

leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the 

Loan Ranger Bandit. Beginning in 2009, he has robbed 

banks in Arkansas, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Texas. His 

most recent robbery was last month in Temple, Texas at 

the Santa Fe Community Credit Union—the second time 

he has targeted that institution.

“He is a lot more reckless now,” said Di Lisi, explaining 

that in the early robberies, the bandit would give tellers a 

demand note and show them a weapon in his waistband. 

“Beginning with the ninth robbery and every one since 

then,” Di Lisi said, “he has actually brandished the 

weapon.”

Officials with the Tyler Police Department in Texas came 

up with the Loan Ranger Bandit’s moniker because the 

robber is known to target financial institutions that make 

loans, and he wore a Texas Rangers baseball cap in one of 

his first robberies.
2013 The FBI Story 65

August 27, 2013

Scamming Nuns

Con Artist Gets His Due

telling the nun that there were problems with the will, 

including a legal challenge by the deceased’s son, and 

additional money was needed to avoid lawsuits. He 

threatened her with media attention and law enforcement 

action if she didn’t send more money.

In an effort to expand the scheme even further, 

Sotomayor contacted individuals who had already wired 

money on behalf of the nun and told them if they sent 

additional money, they could get a portion of the will 

proceeds themselves.

But eventually the FBI—after receiving a complaint 

about a possible fraud scheme victimizing nuns and 

others—was able to uncover the breadth of the scheme 

and identified Adriano Sotomayor as the man behind 

it. Though he fled the day after being indicted, the FBI 

captured him in Las Vegas.

The most important lesson to be learned from this 

case? Do your homework before parting with your hardearned money.

There’s no limit to how low con artists will go to swindle 

victims out of their money—often targeting the elderly, 

the terminally ill, homeowners on the brink of losing 

their homes, even the lonely looking for companionship 

online.

Here’s another category of victims to add to that list: 

members of religious communities who spend their lives 

tending to the sick and the poor.

Earlier this month, a New Jersey man was sentenced to 

18 years in prison for defrauding members of the Puerto 

Rico-based Dominican Sisters of the Rosary of Fatima 

and others of more than a million dollars. He was also 

ordered to pay $1 million in restitution to his victims.

The scheme began back in 2009, when Adriano 

Sotomayor—born in Puerto Rico—obtained names 

and telephone numbers of certain Roman Catholic 

nuns and priests on the island...including an elderly 

nun from the Sisters of Fatima. Claiming to be a New 

Jersey priest, he called and said a deceased member of 

his parish community had named her the beneficiary of 

a $2.1 million estate. Sotomayor also told the nun that 

before receiving her funds, she had to wire money to the 

company handling the will—a New Jersey-based business 

called Flex Account—to cover various taxes, processing, 

and legal fees.

Of course, none of it was true. There was no deceased 

parishioner, no will, and no company called Flex 

Account. It was simply a con man working an angle. 

Unfortunately, it was believable enough to the nun, and 

the Sisters of Fatima thought they could use the money 

from the will to develop a religious community in Haiti.

There was just one problem...the nun had little 

money of her own and couldn’t afford all the advance 

fees. So she borrowed money from Sisters of Fatima 

members, family, and friends in Puerto Rico and 

Pennsylvania (where the sisters also had a presence), 

then wired the money—per Sotomayor’s instructions—to 

various locations in the Atlantic City area. Many of the 

transfers went to casinos—Sotomayor was known to be 

a gambler—and were picked up by individuals working 

for him. And the nun gave the wiring instructions to her 

acquaintances willing to loan her money; they in turn 

sent their shares to those same places.

Turns out, it wasn’t enough. Soon, Sotomayor began 
66 2013 The FBI Story

August 30, 2013

Left: Director Robert S. Mueller, III in his office at FBI Headquarters.

End of an Era

Robert S. Mueller Set to Step 

Down as FBI Director

As FBI Director for 12 years—he agreed to extend his 

10-year term at the request of President Obama—Mueller 

faced the daunting task of keeping the country safe from 

terror attacks while maintaining the Bureau’s established 

crime-fighting role. “People talk about change in the 

Bureau,” he said, “but I consider what we were doing as 

augmenting the traditional capabilities the FBI already 

possessed.”

Mueller said he still worries about the threat of 

terrorism—international and domestic—and cyber 

crime is a growing danger to our national security.

“Should a terrorist utilize cyber capabilities to undertake 

an attack, it could be devastating,” he said. “We have to 

be prepared.”

The American people expect the FBI to be vigilant 

against such attacks while continuing to put corrupt 

politicians in jail, arrest violent criminals and scam 

artists, and keep the country’s secrets safe from spies. 

“Those are substantial responsibilities, and we are up to 

the task,” Mueller said, “but we need the support and the 

funding to exercise our capabilities.”

During his tenure as Director, Mueller regularly spoke of 

the “FBI family” and the Bureau’s responsibility to help 

keep the nation safe. “We have unique mission and a 

unique legacy that has been passed down to us,” he said. 

“People in the FBI are tremendously proud to be a part of 

that legacy.” For more than a century, he added, “the FBI 

has stood for the best of America. And we have done this 

by adhering to our motto of fidelity, bravery, and integrity. 

... It has been my greatest honor and privilege to have 

been part of the FBI family for the past 12 years.”

Robert S. Mueller arrived at the FBI on September 4, 

2001, one week before the terror attacks that shook the 

nation and the world. Twelve years later, the longestserving Director since J. Edgar Hoover is widely credited 

with transforming the organization while maintaining the 

bedrock ideals that have been the FBI’s hallmark for more 

than a century: fidelity, bravery, and integrity.

“When I first came on board, I thought I had a fair 

idea of what to expect,” Mueller said recently during 

a farewell ceremony at FBI Headquarters to honor 

his tenure as Director. “But the September 11 attacks 

altered every expectation.”

Mueller, who will step down as Director next week, 

reshaped the Bureau from a traditional law enforcement 

agency to a threat-focused, intelligence-based national 

security organization, said FBI Deputy Director 

Sean Joyce. “He guided the FBI through a period of 

tremendous change.”

At the ceremony attended by employees, incoming 

Director James Comey, and former FBI Directors William 

Webster, William Sessions, and Louis Freeh, Joyce noted 

that Mueller has served the American people for four 

decades—as a decorated Marine, a prosecutor and former 

U.S. attorney, and leader of the FBI.

“As a prosecutor,” Mueller said, “I had worked closely with 

the FBI over the years. But I had not witnessed firsthand 

the FBI’s incredible response in times of crisis or the 

ability of the Bureau’s men and women to band together 

to do what is needed—without fanfare or drama—and 

with a level of efficiency and excellence that is unrivaled.”

Scan this QR code with your smartphone

to access related video and photos, or visit 

www.fbi.gov/muellertenure.
2013 The FBI Story 67

September 3, 2013

The Crime of ‘Swatting’

Fake 9-1-1 Calls Have

Real Consequences

“Swatting” is a prank designed to draw a law enforcement response 

to a hoax victim.

occur annually, Kolbye guesses there are hundreds. A 

recent trend, he said, is so-called celebrity swatting, where 

the targeted victims are well-known actors and musicians.

“People who make these swatting calls are very 

credible,” he said. “They have no trouble convincing 

9-1-1 operators they are telling the truth.” And thanks 

to “spoofing” technology—which enables callers to mask 

their own numbers while making the victims’ numbers 

appear—emergency operators are doubly tricked.

Most who engage in swatting are serial offenders also 

involved in other cyber crimes such as identity theft and 

credit card fraud, Kolbye said. They either want to brag 

about their swatting exploits or exact revenge on someone 

who angered them online.

Kolbye suggests making a police report about any swatting 

threats you receive online. Such threats typically come 

from the online gaming community, where competitors 

can play and interact anonymously. With a report on file, 

if a 9-1-1 incident does occur at your home, the police will 

be aware that it could be a hoax.

“The FBI takes swatting very seriously,” Kolbye said. 

“Working closely with industry and law enforcement 

partners, we continue to refine our technological 

capabilities and our investigative techniques to stop the 

thoughtless individuals who commit these crimes. The 

bottom line,” he added, “is that swatting puts innocent 

people at risk.”

The distraught-sounding man told the 9-1-1 operator he 

shot a family member and might kill others in the house. 

A SWAT team was urgently dispatched to the address 

corresponding to the caller’s phone number. But when 

the tactical team arrived, ready for a possible violent 

encounter, they found only a surprised family panicked by 

the officers at their door.

It’s called “swatting”—making a hoax call to 9-1-1 

to draw a response from law enforcement, usually a 

SWAT team. The individuals who engage in this activity 

use technology to make it appear that the emergency call 

is coming from the victim’s phone. Sometimes swatting 

is done for revenge, sometimes as a prank. Either way, it 

is a serious crime, and one that has potentially dangerous 

consequences.

Since we first warned about this phone hacking 

phenomenon in 2008, the FBI has arrested numerous 

individuals on federal charges stemming from swatting 

incidents, and some are currently in prison. Today, 

although most swatting cases are handled by local and 

state law enforcement agencies, the Bureau often provides 

resources and guidance in these investigations.

“The FBI looks at these crimes as a public safety issue,” 

said Kevin Kolbye, an assistant special agent in charge 

in our Dallas Division. “It’s only a matter of time before 

somebody gets seriously injured as a result of one of these 

incidents.”

There have already been close calls. A police officer was 

injured in a car accident during an emergency response 

that turned out to be a swatting incident, Kolbye said, 

and some unsuspecting victims—caught off guard when 

SWAT teams suddenly arrived on their doorsteps—have 

suffered mild heart attacks.

“The victims are scared and taken by surprise,” he said. 

Law enforcement personnel, meanwhile, rush to the scene 

of a swatting incident on high alert. “They believe they 

have a violent subject to apprehend or an innocent victim 

to rescue,” Kolbye explained. “It’s a dangerous situation 

any way you look at it.”

It is also expensive. It can cost thousands of dollars every 

time a SWAT team is called out. And although there are 

no national statistics on how many swatting incidents 
68 2013 The FBI Story

September 6, 2013

Transnational Law 

Enforcement Efforts

Helping Stem Transnational 

Crime

Central American Fingerprint Exchange (CAFÉ):

This NGTF-established program was developed to collect 

and store criminal biometric data, including fingerprint 

records, from all Central American countries. The 

collected prints are added to the FBI’s Criminal Justice 

Information Services Division’s general database, where 

they’re accessible to local, state, and federal agencies in 

the U.S.

Criminal History Information Program (CHIP):

Through this initiative, the FBI provides the Salvadoran 

and Honduran National Police with the criminal history, 

biographical, and background information of non-U.S. 

citizen gang members and associates who are deported 

from the U.S. back to their home countries.

The second three CARSI programs are more trainingfocused:

Central American Law Enforcement Exchange 

(CALEE): This officer exchange program provides 

Central American and U.S. police officers with 

hands-on training that emphasizes operational 

techniques and current gang trends. CALEE encourages 

relationship-building and innovative approaches for gang 

investigations and offers a clearer understanding of the 

transnational threat posed by violent criminal street 

gangs. This four-week program takes part in classrooms 

and in the field.

Central American Intelligence Program (CAIP):

CAIP allows representatives from U.S. and Central 

American law enforcement agencies to take part in an 

interactive, custom-designed intelligence and exchange 

program. CAIP was developed to expose participants 

to best practices in the areas of collection, analysis, and 

dissemination of transnational gang intelligence.

Central American Community Impact Exchange 

(CACIE): With its goal of helping Central American 

nations develop positive community impact programs, 

CACIE focuses on the importance of community 

collaboration and strengthening relationships between 

community leaders and law enforcement. The newest 

of the CARSI programs, CACIE was developed in 

partnership with the State Department and the White 

House national security staff.

These six CARSI programs have proven to be a valuable 

weapon against transnational gangs and have assisted the 

FBI and our partners in targeting and disrupting many 

MS-13 and 18th Street gang connections—proof positive 

that transnational cooperation among law enforcement 

can trump cross-border collaboration among criminals.

Four leaders of the MS-13 gang were convicted in 

Atlanta recently in connection with a terrorizing violent 

crime spree. During the course of the investigation, we 

determined that many of their violent acts were directed 

by gang leadership in El Salvador and Honduras—a 

common occurrence uncovered in other investigations 

as well. This international criminal nexus of violent 

gangs is the focus of several FBI programs funded by the 

U.S. State Department through the Central American 

Regional Security Initiative (CARSI).

CARSI’s goal is to confront the dangers of organized 

crime, violent gangs, and drug trafficking in Central 

America and the U.S., and several domestic federal 

agencies participate in various facets of the initiative. 

The FBI, through its National Gang Task Force 

(NGTF), specifically supports six programs targeting the 

transnational threats posed by the MS-13 and 18th Street 

gangs.

The first three are operationally focused:

Transnational Anti-Gang (TAG) Unit: This program 

combines the expertise, resources, and jurisdiction of 

participating agencies involved in investigating and 

countering transnational criminal gang activity in the 

U.S. and Central America. These groups—headed by 

FBI agents who lead vetted teams of national police and 

prosecutors in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras—

coordinate with FBI legal attachés assigned to those 

regions and with the Bureau’s International Operations 

Division.
2013 The FBI Story 69

September 10, 2013

Serial Killers

Part 1: The FBI’s Role

Takes Shape

Richard Marc Evonitz committed three murders in Virginia. Over the 

years, the FBI has played a slowly evolving role in addressing the 

threat of serial killers.

psychology and behavioral science to violent criminal 

behavior in a comprehensive way. Since then, the FBI has 

become a leader in behavioral analysis, providing an array 

of support and training to help identify serial killers and 

to prevent future violence.

The FBI’s involvement in serial killer cases has also 

evolved under federal law. For example, the Bureau was 

authorized to investigate violent crimes against interstate 

travelers in 1994 and serial killings specifically in 1998. 

The FBI may investigate only when requested to do so by 

an appropriate law enforcement agency. The Bureau is 

also authorized to provide a variety of support services, 

from laboratory and behavioral analysis to crime statistics 

collection and the sharing of criminal identification and 

history information through our longstanding services 

and systems.

In the coming months, FBI.gov will examine the Bureau’s 

role in addressing serial killings in more detail, including 

our work in some of the most horrific serial murder 

investigations in the last 40 years.

Part 2: The birth of behavioral analysis in the FBI (page 77)

Seventeen years ago yesterday—on September 9, 1996—a 

teenager disappeared from her home in Spotsylvania 

County, Virginia. Tragically, she was found dead the 

following month. The next May, two sisters in the same 

county went missing after coming home from school. Five 

days later, their bodies were found in a river about 40 

miles away.

This trio of murders was the work of a serial killer 

named Richard Marc Evonitz. It took another five years 

for him to be identified. In June 2002, after a teenage girl 

managed to escape from a kidnapper in South Carolina, 

she identified Evonitz as her abductor. He fled to Florida 

and committed suicide as authorities closed in. Valuable 

trace evidence collected by the FBI later definitively 

linked him to the murders of the three Virginia girls. He 

is suspected of more homicides and other attacks.

Although relatively rare, serial killings have both 

horrified and fascinated the American people for 

decades. Serial murderers have existed throughout 

history and have been popularized by such killers as Jack 

the Ripper in England and Herman Webster Mudgett 

in the United States in the late 1800s. The exact origin 

of the term serial killer or serial murderer is not known, 

but it appears to have come into use in law enforcement 

circles in the 1970s and more commonly in society in the 

1980s and 1990s.

Over the years, the FBI has played a slowly evolving 

role in addressing the threat of serial killers. In its 

earliest days, few violent crimes fell under the Bureau’s 

jurisdiction. It depended on where the crime occurred—if 

it was on government property, the high seas, or certain 

Indian reservations, the FBI took charge. In the 1930s, 

the FBI became a household name as it tackled violent 

gangsters and gained more law enforcement authorities in 

the process. In the 1950s and ‘60s, the Bureau supported 

local and state law enforcement in some high-profile serial 

killer cases like the Boston Strangler and the Zodiac 

Killer of Northern California.

It was in the 1970s, however, that the FBI’s role 

in addressing serial killers began to grow as new 

capabilities were developed. Building on earlier work in 

New York and elsewhere, Special Agent Howard Teten 

and others in the Bureau began to apply the insights of 
70 2013 The FBI Story

September 13, 2013

Left: Investigators at the 16th Street Baptist Church in

Birmingham after it was bombed on September, 15, 1963.

Civil Rights in the ‘60s

Part 2: Retired Investigators 

Reflect on 16th Street Baptist 

Church Bombing

thinking it was the ultimate cold case. “But if we’re going 

to do it,” he said at the time, “we need to do it right, 

because this is the last time that it would be feasible to try 

to reinvestigate.”

For nearly 15 months, the two scoured the case files 

with a singular focus on finding new leads. “I didn’t 

read anything else about it,” Herren said. “I wanted the 

files to lead me through the investigation instead of me 

trying to lead the investigation.” The files led them back 

to familiar names from earlier probes.

They tracked down Bobby Cherry, a known Birmingham 

Ku Klux Klan member who had moved to Texas, and 

interviewed him for four hours. The exchange so incensed 

Cherry that he called a press conference to loudly 

proclaim his innocence. It made national news, and the 

FBI’s phones started ringing. “This was the best thing to 

happen to our investigation,” Fleming said, “because we 

started getting witnesses and people that were able to give 

us information.” The witness accounts would eventually 

implicate Cherry at trial.

As tips rolled in and more witnesses stepped forward, 

Fleming and Herren expanded their focus to Tommy 

Blanton, who was suspected in the early investigation—

enough so that agents had planted listening devices at 

his home. Fleming tracked down the old reel-to-reel 

tapes, which revealed Blanton explaining to his wife and 

another man the details of how the bomb plot unfolded.

Relying heavily on the tapes, a jury in 2001 needed only a 

couple hours to render a guilty verdict against Blanton on 

state murder charges. He was sentenced to life in prison, 

where he remains today. Cherry was convicted in 2002 

for his role as a co-conspirator and sentenced to life in 

prison, where he died in 2004.

Fleming and Herren, who remain close friends today, 

have been lauded for their tireless work. But they are 

quick to credit others who stepped forward in the 

course of their investigation.

“If it was not for the people who read the paper and 

[saw] the TV spot—and all we had was the file—I don’t 

know that we would have ever accomplished anything,” 

Fleming said. Both have said the investigation was the 

most rewarding case they ever worked. “You feel like you 

have done the job,” Herren said. “Even though it looked 

like a tremendous uphill battle, we finally got justice for 

the little girls.”

On September 15, 1963—50 years ago this Sunday—five 

young girls preparing for Sunday worship services were 

in the basement of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 

Birmingham, Alabama, when a bomb tore through the 

church’s east wall, killing four of them.

The blast at the African-American church—a popular 

meeting place for civil rights leaders like the Rev. 

Martin Luther King, Jr.—was a turning point in the 

civil rights movement. The killing of young innocents—

Addie Mae Collins, Denice McNair, Carole Robertson, 

and Cynthia Wesley—drew national attention to 

Birmingham...a city some already called “Bombingham” 

because of its pattern of racially motivated attacks.

The FBI sent dozens of agents to investigate, but reluctant 

witnesses and a lack of prosecutable evidence made it 

hard to bring the bombers to justice. It wasn’t until a 

decade later in 1977 that one of the bombers, Robert 

“Dynamite” Chambliss, was convicted for his role in the 

case, but evidence still suggested more conspirators. In 

the mid-‘90s FBI Birmingham Special Agent in Charge 

Rob Langford reopened the case, assigning senior 

agent Bill Fleming and recruiting Birmingham Police 

Department Sgt. Ben Herren to work it full time.

“It pretty much looked like an uphill battle,” said Herren, 

who is now retired and living in Birmingham. He and 

Fleming were initially reluctant to take the case, given 

that more than 100 potential witnesses had died in the 

decades since the bombing. In 1996, Herren recalled 
2013 The FBI Story 71

September 16, 2013

Latest Crime Stats Released

Violent Crime Up, Property Crime Down

According to our just-released Crime in the United States, 

2012 report, the estimated number of violent crimes 

reported to law enforcement increased 0.7 percent over 

2011 figures. And the estimated number of property 

crimes decreased 0.9 percent from 2011—the 10th year in 

a row that property crimes showed a decline.
72 2013 The FBI Story

September 19, 2013

Public Corruption: 

Courtroom for Sale

Judge Gets Jail Time in

Racketeering Case

Evidence also showed that Limas made a deal with the 

attorneys in the helicopter crash case to become an “of 

counsel” attorney with the firm. He was promised an 

advance of $100,000 and 10 percent of the settlement—

all while the case was still pending in his court.

Over a 14-month period beginning in November 2007, 

investigators used court-authorized wiretaps to listen to 

the judge’s phone calls. “That’s when we really learned 

the scope of what he was doing,” Gripka explained. The 

judge’s nearly $100,000 annual salary was not enough 

to support his lifestyle, which included regular gambling 

trips to Las Vegas.

In 2010, when Limas was faced with the overwhelming 

evidence against him, he began to cooperate in a wider 

public corruption investigation—and our agents learned 

that the Cameron County district attorney at the time, 

Armando Villalobos, was also corrupt. The investigation 

showed, among other criminal activities, that Villalobos 

accepted $80,000 in cash in exchange for taking actions 

that allowed a convicted murderer to be released for 

60 days without bond prior to reporting to prison. The 

murderer failed to report to prison and remains a fugitive.

Limas pled guilty to racketeering in 2011. By that 

time, he had helped authorities uncover wide-ranging 

corruption in the Cameron County judicial system. To 

date, 10 other defendants have been convicted by a jury 

or pled guilty as part of the FBI’s six-year investigation, 

including a former Texas state representative, three 

attorneys, a former investigator for the district attorney’s 

office, and Villalobos, who is scheduled to be sentenced 

next month on racketeering, extortion, and bribery 

charges.

“During the course of this investigation, we interviewed 

over 800 people, including many local attorneys in 

Cameron County,” Gripka said. “We hope this case shows 

everyone that the government will not tolerate officials 

who violate the public trust. Fighting public corruption is 

a priority for the FBI,” he added, “and it is something we 

take very seriously.”

In a case that exposed widespread corruption in a South 

Texas county’s judicial system—reaching all the way to 

the district attorney’s office—a former state judge was 

recently sentenced to six years in prison for taking bribes 

and kickbacks in return for favorable rulings from his 

bench.

Abel Limas, 59, a lifelong resident of Brownsville, 

Texas, served as a police officer and practiced law 

before becoming a state judge in Cameron County 

in 2001. He served eight years on the bench, during 

which time he turned his courtroom into a criminal 

enterprise to line his own pockets.

“The depth of the corruption was shocking,” said Mark 

Gripka, a special agent in our San Antonio Division who 

was part of the team that investigated the case. “What 

was more shocking was how cheaply Judge Limas sold 

his courtroom—$300 here, $500 there—in return for a 

favorable ruling.”

There was plenty of big money involved as well. Limas 

received more than $250,000 in bribes and kickbacks 

while he was on the bench. He took money from 

attorneys with civil cases pending in his court in return 

for favorable pre-trial rulings, most notably in a case 

involving a Texas helicopter crash that was later settled 

for $14 million. Referring to an $8,000 payment Limas 

received in that case, our investigators listened on the 

telephone as he described the cash to an accomplice as 

eight golf balls. “Their code language didn’t fool anybody,” 

Gripka said.
2013 The FBI Story 73

September 24, 2013

New Internet Crime

Initiative

Combines Resources, Expertise

Our cyber task forces, located in every field office, are 

made up of FBI agents, other federal representatives, and 

state and local law enforcement dedicated to investigating 

a whole range of cyber threats, including Internet crime. 

In the Utah pilot program, our agents team up with 

officers from the Utah Department of Public Safety’s 

Bureau of Investigation, along with federal and local 

prosecutors. Decisions are made jointly whether to 

prosecute locally or federally, or if violations of local 

statutes can be combined in a federal prosecution going 

after an entire criminal enterprise that operates across 

jurisdictional lines.

Another vital aspect of our focused effort to investigate 

Internet crime is partnering with state agencies charged 

with the regulatory policing of the various entities being 

investigated—like consumer protection bureaus—as well 

as federal regulatory agencies. Our cyber task force in Salt 

Lake City has made those partnerships a priority.

A note to the public: The information extracted from 

crime complaints submitted to IC3 is the bedrock of 

this initiative, so the more complaints IC3 receives, the 

more effective law enforcement can be in identifying and 

arresting those responsible. If you believe you or someone 

you know may have been a victim of Internet crime, 

please file a complaint with IC3.

A pilot program targeting Internet crime—focused 

on establishing a model for sharing information and 

coordinating investigations—was recently launched by 

the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) and the 

state of Utah.

“The Utah pilot is the first step in our efforts to fix a gap 

that the FBI and our state and local law enforcement 

partners have recognized exists in the investigation and 

prosecution of Internet fraud,” said Richard McFeely, 

executive assistant director of the Bureau’s Criminal, 

Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. “Because not 

all Internet fraud schemes rise to the level necessary to 

prosecute them in federal court, we are enhancing how 

we package the investigative leads we receive at IC3 and 

disseminating those packages directly to state and local 

agencies.” Based on the initial results of the Utah pilot, he 

said, the FBI plans to expand it to other states.

Internet fraud and other Internet-based crimes for 

profit cause untold financial losses each year. The 

IC3 reports that in 2012 alone, victims reported more 

than $500 million in losses due to crimes like fraudulent 

auto sales, intimidation/extortion scams, online dating 

fraud, scareware and ransomware, auction fraud, charity 

fraud, and computer intrusions. Our new initiative, led 

by IC3 with the assistance of our Cyber and Criminal 

Investigative Divisions, combines law enforcement 

resources to strategically pursue criminals responsible for 

these kinds of crimes.

How the program works. Using its complaint database 

and its analytical capabilities, IC3 personnel create 

actionable intelligence packages that are connected 

to particular geographic regions. These packages can 

highlight trends, identity individuals and criminal 

enterprises based on commonalities of complaints, 

link different methods of operation back to the same 

organization, and detect various layers of criminal 

activity. They will also contain results of preliminary 

investigative research performed by IC3 analysts, 

including criminal record checks and basic web domain 

searches.

Once the packages are complete, they are submitted 

to the local FBI cyber task force for further action, 

giving investigators a leg up on any case before the first 

interview is even conducted.
74 2013 The FBI Story

September 26, 2013

Left: FBI Criminal Investigative Division Assistant Director Ronald 

Hosko discusses charges against nine auto parts makers during a 

press conference in Washington, D.C. At left is Deputy Assistant

Attorney General Scott Hammond of DOJ’s Antitrust Division.

Sticker Shock

Guilty Pleas Show High Cost of 

Price-Fixing in Auto Industry

Hammond said car makers—which already operate on 

tight margins—were victimized along with consumers. 

When car makers put out requests for bids, he said, 

“What they didn’t realize is that in back rooms and secret 

meetings in the United States and Japan, their suppliers 

were getting together and allocating business and fixing 

the prices.”

The guilty pleas announced Thursday bring to 20 the 

number of companies charged in the Justice Department’s 

ongoing multi-year investigation of the auto industry. 

Seventeen of 21 executives have also been charged, 

with most of them facing or already serving prison time. 

Additionally, heavy fines have been imposed—more than 

$740 million since the investigation began in 2011. With 

the recent charges, criminal fines could reach $1.6 billion.

In one case, Gary Walker, an American executive with a 

Japanese company operating in Auburn Hills, Michigan, 

rigged bids between 2003 and 2010 to fix the prices of 

seat belts sold to Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and Mazda 

manufacturers, according to the federal charges. Other 

defendants—including Hitachi Automotive Systems Ltd., 

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, and Jtekt Corporation—

rigged bids on starter motors, alternators, ignition coils, 

bearings, and other essential vehicle components.

The FBI and Antitrust Division worked closely on the 

case with counterparts overseas, including the Japan Fair 

Trade Commission. Search warrants in the U.S. were 

coordinated with searches overseas.

Hosko said companies trying to game the system 

should note the stiff penalties meted out as a result 

of the investigation and prosecutions. “Today’s events 

and the last few years of investigation should send a 

clear message to companies that suffer from the notion 

that they don’t need to follow the rules,” he said. “If you 

violate the laws of this country, the FBI and the Justice 

Department will investigate and stop the threat you pose 

to our economy and to hardworking Americans.”

Price-fixing conspiracies by auto parts manufacturers may 

have inflated the cost of your new car. In announcing 

guilty pleas by nine Japan-based auto parts makers and 

two executives, the Justice Department today laid out 

details of brazen collusion schemes to rig the prices of 

more than 30 kinds of car parts—like seat belts, radiators, 

and windshield wipers—sold to U.S. car makers.

The conspiracies—some lasting a decade or more—

affected more than $5 billion in automotive parts 

and more than 25 million cars purchased by U.S. 

consumers.

“The scheme directly impacted your bank account,” said 

FBI Criminal Investigative Division Assistant Director 

Ronald Hosko at a press conference today, where he 

was joined by Attorney General Eric Holder and Scott 

Hammond, head of the Criminal Enforcement Program 

in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “These 

individuals and companies drove up costs for both vehicle 

makers and buyers, which caused you to spend more.”

Automakers affected include Ford, General Motors, 

and Chrysler, as well as the U.S. subsidiaries of 

Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, and 

Toyota. Auto plants in Detroit and 13 other states were 

victims. FBI agents in 11 field offices investigated the 

cases.

Charges filed in Detroit, Cincinnati, and Toledo reveal 

the lengths conspirators went to gain unfair advantage. 

In phone calls and secretive meetings—sometimes using 

code names—the companies agreed to rig bids, set prices, 

and manipulate the supply of parts to U.S. car makers.
2013 The FBI Story 75

September 30, 2013

A Byte Out of History

The Bobby Greenlease

Kidnapping

Bobby Greenlease was shot with a .38 caliber revolver (lower left) 

in his kidnappers’ vehicle (top right) and buried in a shallow grave 

beneath a trellis on Bonnie Heady’s property (top left). The boy’s parents had paid Heady and Carl Hall a $600,000 ransom (lower right) 

for the 6-year-old boy’s safe return.

The Bureau had been involved in the case from the 

beginning, and its extensive investigation not only led to 

the recovery of Robert Cosgrove Greenlease, Jr.’s body 

in a grave on Heady’s property in St. Joseph, Missouri, 

but also resulted in dozens of pages of confessions and 

indisputable evidence. Hall and Heady were tried, 

convicted, and—after just over an hour of deliberation 

by the jury—sentenced to death for the crime. As Judge 

Albert L. Reeves said of the case, “I think the verdict fits 

the evidence. It is the most coldblooded, brutal murder I 

have ever tried.”

On December 18, 1953—less than three months after 

Bobby’s kidnapping—Hall and Heady were executed 

together in Missouri’s gas chamber. The Greenlease 

family never got their beloved son back. But, thanks to 

the hard work of the FBI and its partners, justice was 

served.

On September 28, 1953—60 years ago this past 

weekend—a woman knocked on the door of the French 

Institute of Notre Dame de Sion in Kansas City, Missouri. 

When a nun answered, the woman explained that she 

was the aunt of Bobby Greenlease, a 6-year-old student 

at the school, and that his mother had just suffered a 

heart attack and she needed to take the boy immediately. 

Except the woman was not Bobby’s aunt, and his mother 

had not suffered a heart attack. Instead, Bonnie Emily 

Heady had just kidnapped the son of a very wealthy 

Kansas City car dealer.

It’s every parent’s worst nightmare...but what happened 

next was even worse. The plan, masterminded by Heady’s 

paramour, Carl Austin Hall, was to extract a significant 

ransom from the worried parents—$600,000, to be 

exact—in exchange for the boy’s safe return. But Hall 

and Heady never intended to carry out their end of the 

bargain. After driving Bobby away from the school, all 

the while chatting with him about his pets and even 

buying him ice cream, the trio continued on to a secluded 

farm in Kansas, where Hall, who considered the boy 

evidence that needed to be destroyed, shot Bobby at 

point-blank range, killing him.

That didn’t stop Hall and Heady from cashing in. After 

nearly a week of 15 phone calls and more than a halfdozen ransom notes that sent the Greenlease family on a 

wild goose chase, the two eventually got their loot. Hall 

then promised to send instructions on where to pick up 

Bobby...instructions that, unlike the other notes, were 

never delivered.

It all seemed to go off without a hitch...until they 

picked up the ransom money on October 5 with no 

plans on what to do next. Hall and Heady, both severe 

alcoholics who couldn’t start the day without a drink, 

drove nearly 380 miles to St. Louis and rented an 

apartment. When Heady passed out, Hall put $2,000 in 

her purse and left.

By enlisting the services of a cab driver, a prostitute, and 

copious amounts of alcohol, Hall may have been a bit 

too free with his newly acquired money—leading the cab 

driver to report his suspicious fare to the St. Louis Police 

Department. On October 6, officers arrested Hall. The 

FBI was notified and quickly tied him to the kidnapping. 

Hall gave up Heady, who was arrested the same night.
76 2013 The FBI Story

October 18, 2013

Prescription for Fraud

Internet Pharmacy Operator

Gets Jail Time

Although many of the doctors who purchased the drugs 

were unaware of the fraud—some even became suspicious 

and notified authorities when they received shipments 

with foreign labeling—Godshall believes “many of 

the doctors who ordered from Bean didn’t do the due 

diligence that their position required of them. They 

simply relied on the representations of a con man.”

Two doctors have admitted knowingly buying the 

foreign drugs. One of them, a Pennsylvania oncologist 

whose practice purchased nearly $1 million worth of 

the misbranded drugs, was recently fined $100,000 and 

ordered to place ads in two medical journals warning of 

the dangers of unapproved drugs.

Between 2005 and 2011, Bean illegally sold more 

than $7 million worth of prescription oncology drugs 

to doctors in the U.S. Cancer medicine is expensive, 

Godshall explained. “A single course of chemotherapy 

can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.” At the same 

time, many cancer patients being treated by oncologists 

are eligible for Medicare, and reimbursements to doctors 

from Medicare have been cut, providing further incentive 

for physicians to buy non-approved discounted drugs. “All 

those factors added to Bean being able to successfully 

carry on his fraud for so long,” Godshall said.

The drugs Bean fraudulently sold turned out to be the 

foreign equivalents of the same drugs manufactured for 

the U.S. market. But without FDA oversight, there is no 

guarantee that drugs coming into the country illegally 

aren’t counterfeit and unsafe, Godshall said. “The point of 

the law is to protect our supply chain here in the United 

States and to protect the health of American citizens.”

He added, “You go to a doctor and expect that they are 

going to treat your disease and not knowingly expose you 

to any dangers. But when doctors use drugs that have not 

been approved by the FDA, there’s no telling what you 

are getting. And that puts a patient’s health in jeopardy.”

A Florida man has been sentenced to prison for his role 

in importing cancer drugs manufactured overseas and 

then illegally selling them to doctors in the U.S.—and 

two doctors who bought the deeply discounted medicines 

have been held accountable as well.

Martin Paul Bean pled guilty to selling unapproved 

and misbranded drugs, conspiracy to commit wire 

fraud, mail fraud, and other federal violations and was 

sentenced recently to two years in prison.

Bean and an associate used a marketing technique 

known as “blast faxing” to target oncologists around the 

country. The one-page fax that arrived in hundreds of 

doctors’ offices advertised generic cancer medicines at 

20 to 35 percent discounts—and led doctors to believe 

that the drugs were approved by the Food and Drug 

Administration (FDA) as required by law.

In fact, the drugs—marketed in the U.S. as Gemzar7, 

Taxotere7, Eloxatin7, Zometa7, and Kytril7—were 

manufactured in Turkey, India, and Pakistan and were 

not approved by the FDA. The drugs were shipped from 

overseas to California, where they were repackaged and 

illegally sent to doctors in California, Florida, Texas, and 

elsewhere.

“Our investigation identified more than 50 doctors 

across the country who purchased the cancer drugs from 

Bean’s online GlobalRX Store,” said Special Agent Brad 

Godshall, who worked the case from our San Diego 

Division. “Ultimately, we were able to dismantle the 

entire operation.”
2013 The FBI Story 77

October 23, 2013

Serial Killers

Part 2: The Birth of Behavioral 

Analysis in the FBI

Behavioral analysis played a role in the case of serial killer Ted Bundy.

Word spread, and interest in the course skyrocketed. So 

Teten borrowed FBI New York Special Agent Patrick 

Mullany, who had a master’s degree in educational 

psychology, and the two began teaching together. Teten 

would outline the facts of a case, and Mullany would 

show how aspects of the criminal’s personality were 

revealed in the crime scene. According to Teten, “Patrick 

really made a difference, because he was a fully qualified 

psychologist, where I was a criminologist.” Soon Mullany 

was reassigned to Quantico permanently.

In 1972, the FBI stood up a behavioral science unit to 

advance the concepts the pair was teaching throughout 

the FBI and across law enforcement; it was led by 

Supervisory Special Agent Jack Kirsch and included 

Teten and Mullany (Ressler joined in 1975)—and their 

growing education, research, and service responsibilities. 

As the unit developed, so did the FBI’s study and 

understanding of serial killers.

And Ted Bundy? Five days after landing on the FBI’s 

Top Ten list, he was caught by a Florida policeman. 

He was ultimately convicted of multiple murders and 

executed in 1989.

Part 3: Ted Bundy’s campaign of terror (page 83)

In the final days of 1977, a man now known as one of 

the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history—Theodore 

“Ted” Bundy—cleverly escaped from a Colorado prison 

while most of the staff was away for the holidays.

FBI agents quickly joined the search. In early February 

1978, the Bureau placed Bundy on its Ten Most Wanted 

Fugitives list. Among the information shared by the FBI 

with law enforcement during this time were details on his 

“M.O.” (modus operandi or method of operation). Bundy 

typically looked for victims at places where young people 

gathered, such as colleges, beaches, ski resorts, and discos, 

the FBI explained. And he preferred young, attractive 

women with long hair parted in the middle.

The synopsis was pulled from a psychological 

assessment of Ted Bundy prepared by two FBI 

agents—Howard Teten and Robert Ressler—at the 

Bureau’s Training Academy. The two men were part of 

a groundbreaking behavioral analysis unit set up five years 

earlier for precisely this purpose: to study the behavior, 

experiences, and psychological make-up of criminals and 

suspects for patterns and insights that could help solve 

cases and prevent future crimes, especial serial murders 

and other forms of violence.

Criminal behavioral analysis wasn’t a new concept. In the 

1940s and 1950s, for example, George Metsky—the socalled “Mad Bomber”—planted explosive devices around 

New York City until a behavioral profile developed for 

the police by a local criminologist and psychiatrist helped 

lead to his capture in 1957. But in the coming years, the 

FBI would take this innovation to a whole new level.

At the center of this evolution was Teten. He had 

joined the FBI as an agent in 1962, already with an 

interest in the psychological aspects of criminal behavior. 

In 1969, he was recruited by the Training Division to 

be an instructor, and around 1970, he convinced his 

supervisor to let him teach a workshop in “applied 

criminology.” His first course was a four-hour lecture to 

New York police; it was a hit. Next, he gave the course at 

a regional police training school in Texas, expanding it to 

four days. By about day three, students were bringing up 

unsolved cases. Based on insights from a class discussion, 

one student interviewed a suspect—and the man 

confessed.
78 2013 The FBI Story

October 25, 2013

Left: Hovhannes Harutyunyan, center, an Armenian who was living

in Burbank, California, is one of the architects of a fraud ring that

enlisted visa holders like Yermek Dossymbekov, left, and Alisher

Omarov to commit crimes. If you have information on the case,

contact the San Diego FBI at (858) 320-1800 or submit a tip at

tips.fbi.gov.

International Fraud

Crime Ring Recruited ShortTerm Visa Holders

of the suspects, including one of the crime ring’s main 

architects, Hovhannes Harutyunyan, 34, an Armenian 

whose last known address was in Burbank, California.

The charges show four primary schemes. Here’s how 

they worked:

▪ Using stolen identities, the crime ring filed about 

2,000 fraudulent tax returns claiming more than $20 

million in refunds. J-1 students obtained addresses 

and bank accounts for the fraudulent refunds to be 

sent.

▪ Conspirators set up bank accounts and began writing 

checks back and forth to create a good transaction 

history, which banks rewarded by shortening or 

eliminating holds on deposited checks. Then the socalled “seed” accounts wrote bad checks to 60 “bustout” accounts, which paid out more than $680,000.

▪ Conspirators obtained personal information about the 

identities and accounts of wealthy bank customers 

and disguised themselves as the account holders. 

They practiced forging documents and impersonating 

the account holders and succeeded in obtaining 

$551,842. They laundered the money by purchasing 

gold with the stolen funds.

▪ Conspirators obtained pre-paid debit cards in the 

names of identity theft victims and opened bank 

accounts in the names of visa holders who sold their 

account information before leaving the U.S. They 

then filed more than 400 fraudulent tax returns 

seeking more than $3 million.

“This investigation involved multiple complex 

fraudulent schemes resulting in significant losses to 

financial institutions and American taxpayers,” said 

San Diego FBI Special Agent in Charge Daphne Hearn.

Agent Butler said the charges and arrests send a message 

that these schemes are not without consequences. Those 

who have already fled won’t find it easy to get back to the 

U.S. “And they won’t be able to tell their friends that they 

can come to the U.S., commit fraud, get some quick cash, 

and that nothing will happen to them,” she said.

Note: The fugitives pictured here may have been located 

since the above information was posted on our website. Please 

check www.fbi.gov for up-to-date information.

The recruitment pitch to students on short-term visas 

must have seemed irresistible: give us your good name 

and some help in our fraud scheme, and we’ll put 

money—potentially thousands of dollars—in your wallet 

before your return trip home.

In charges unsealed late last month in San Diego, FBI 

agents and their law enforcement partners named dozens 

of young visa holders from former Soviet bloc countries 

who took the bait and became willing co-conspirators 

in a range of elaborate fraud schemes. In four separate 

indictments, a federal grand jury laid bare how a Los 

Angeles-based Armenian crime ring ran scams in L.A. 

and San Diego that relied on a steady tide of accomplices 

whose time was short in the U.S. While the crimes 

themselves were not especially novel—identity theft, 

bank fraud, tax fraud—the explicit recruitment of coconspirators with expiring visas was a twist.

“The J-1 visa holders are a commodity in these 

cases,” said Special Agent Davene Butler, who works 

in our San Diego Division. She described how a few 

masterminds enlisted young accomplices to do much 

of the legwork in their fraud schemes—opening bank 

accounts and securing apartments and post office boxes 

to route proceeds from bogus tax returns, for example. By 

the time a scam came to light, the “foot soldiers” holding 

J-1 and F-1 visas—which allow foreigners to study and 

travel in the U.S. for brief periods—would be long gone. 

“They were essential in the schemes,” Butler said.

The charges announced on September 26 named 55 

individuals and followed a two-year investigation led by 

the San Diego FBI, local authorities, and the IRS, which 

paid out more than $7 million in bogus tax refunds. 

About half of those charged were arrested last month in 

a nationwide sweep, but more than 25 remain at large, 

including 24 who are believed to have left the country. 

The FBI is asking for the public’s help locating some 
2013 The FBI Story 79

October 28, 2013

The Risks to the 

Thin Blue Line

Latest Law Enforcement

Officers Killed and Assaulted

Report Released

descriptions of circumstances leading to officer fatalities 

and injuries every year, police training programs can be 

continuously enhanced to help officers stay safe during 

similar situations.

Beyond publishing the LEOKA report, the FBI has 

other initiatives that are designed to help protect law 

enforcement. For example:

▪ Our LEOKA program also offers an officer safety 

awareness training course that provides potentially 

life-saving information to help law enforcement 

personnel improve their situational awareness during 

activities like arrests, traffic stops, foot pursuits, 

ambushes, and other high-risk encounters.

▪ The FBI Academy’s one-week Law Enforcement 

Training for Safety and Survival program is designed 

to give participants the skills and mindset required 

to identify and handle critical situations in highrisk environments. Topics include arrest planning, 

ballistic shield deployment, low light operations, 

felony vehicle stops, and basic survival techniques.

▪ Our National Crime Information Center (NCIC)—

accessed by more than 92,000 agencies—added a 

Violent Persons File in 2012 that can help officers 

quickly determine if, during a routine traffic stop 

or another type of encounter, they come across an 

individual who has a violent criminal history or who 

has previously threatened law enforcement.

Law enforcement will always be a dangerous profession, 

but enhanced training and awareness will better protect 

those who join its ranks.

A Florida detective was shot and killed while 

investigating a residence believed to house a meth lab. 

An Arizona deputy sheriff lost his life responding to a 

burglary alarm at a business. A Washington state park 

ranger was shot and killed after she attempted to conduct 

a traffic stop.

These three law enforcement officers were among 

the 48 officers around the nation who died in 2012 

as a result of felonious incidents in the line of duty, 

according to the FBI’s latest Law Enforcement Officers 

Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) report. All 48 officers 

would have undoubtedly considered their actions a part of 

the job. But the duties performed by these brave men and 

women—and others just like them—are far from routine, 

and this latest report continues to highlight the risks law 

enforcement officers face on a daily basis.

Among the report’s findings:

▪ The average age of the officers feloniously killed in 

action in 2012 was 38; they had an average of 12 

years of service.

▪ The victims worked in a variety of positions—many 

on vehicle patrol but also as detectives, officers on 

special assignments, undercover officers, etc.

▪ They died in a variety of situations—arrests, traffic 

pursuits or stops, investigations of suspicious persons 

or circumstances, ambushes, tactical situations, 

disturbance calls, and more.

▪ Six of the slain officers were off-duty but felt dutybound to intercede and were acting in an official 

capacity at the time of the incidents.

▪ Of the 48 officers killed, 44 were killed with firearms.

Our latest LEOKA report also provides information 

on another 47 officers who died during 2012 as a 

result of accidents sustained in the line of duty and on 

the 52,901 law enforcement officers assaulted in the 

line of duty.

LEOKA’s overall goal is to reduce law enforcement 

deaths and assaults. By providing agencies with detailed 
80 2013 The FBI Story

October 31, 2013

Attorney-TurnedRacketeer

‘Stunning’ Betrayal of the Law

uncovered evidence that revealed Bergrin was using 

his law offices as a cover to conduct illegal activities to 

protect his criminal clients from prosecution and carry 

on their unlawful pursuits. He used his position as a 

criminal defense attorney to manipulate and disrupt court 

proceedings on behalf of his clients.

And of course, he was paid handsomely for all of it.

Among Bergrin’s criminal actions:

▪ Counseling, intimidating, and sometimes bribing 

witnesses to offer perjured testimony in favor of his 

clients or to flee so they wouldn’t be available to 

testify;

▪ Coaching an 8-year-old murder witness to lie on the 

stand, resulting in the acquittal of one of his clients;

▪ Conspiring with clients to identify, locate, and 

murder witnesses who would testify against them;

▪ Using his law firm to launder money for clients, 

associates, and himself and to set up phony 

corporations or other legal entities to facilitate even 

more crimes;

▪ Running a drug trafficking operation and a 

prostitution business for two of his clients while they 

were in jail.

Bergrin had so many crimes on his plate that he recruited 

others—including his girlfriend (who worked at the law 

firm), his law partner, and one of his criminal clients—to 

take part in his racketeering enterprise. All told, eight of 

the nine individuals charged in the 2009 indictment pled 

guilty.

The probe into Bergrin and his co-conspirators was 

complex and involved investigators from the FBI, the 

Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigations, 

and the Drug Enforcement Administration. After a 

2011 trial which ended with a hung jury, his 2013 trial 

(Bergrin represented himself at both trials) ended a bit 

differently—the jury quickly found him guilty on all 

counts.

The case was proof once again that those entrusted with 

the guardianship of our legal system are not above the 

law.

Earlier this year, a man was put on trial in a federal 

courtroom in Newark, New Jersey. From the list of 

charges—nearly two dozen in all—he sounded like a gang 

leader, drug lord, or organized crime boss. He was accused 

of running a criminal enterprise, conspiring to murder 

a federal witness, committing wire fraud, distributing 

cocaine, and facilitating prostitution, bribery, and other 

crimes.

But the individual who was ultimately convicted on 

23 criminal counts and sentenced to life in prison 

was actually a high-powered Newark lawyer, a former 

New Jersey state and federal prosecutor-turned defense 

attorney.

His name is Paul Bergrin, and, in the end, he 

sacrificed the oath he had once taken to protect and 

defend the Constitution of the United States for 

the chance to line his own pockets. As New Jersey 

U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said following the jury 

conviction, “Bergrin’s conduct was a stunning violation 

of his role as an officer of the court and a betrayal of his 

roots as a member of law enforcement.”

For years, Bergrin and his law firm were highly successful. 

His busy client roster ran the gamut—from famous 

celebrities to gang leaders and drug traffickers. He was a 

man-about-town who wore expensive suits, drove luxury 

cars, and rarely lost a case.

But after the 2004 murder of a federal informant who 

had damaging information about one of Bergrin’s 

criminal clients, the FBI began an investigation. We 
2013 The FBI Story 81

November 5, 2013

Fugitives Sought

New Subjects Added to Cyber’s 

Most Wanted List

▪ Russian national Alexsey Belan, wanted for allegedly 

remotely accessing the computer networks of three 

U.S.-based companies in 2012 and 2013 and stealing 

sensitive data as well as employees’ identities.

Rewards are being offered for each of the five fugitives, all 

of whom are believed to be living outside the U.S.

The FBI’s Most Wanted program is best known for its 

Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. The Top Ten list was 

established more than six decades ago and has become a 

symbol of the Bureau’s crime-fighting ability around the 

world. But the Bureau highlights other wanted fugitives as 

well—terrorists, white-collar criminals, and increasingly, 

those who commit cyber crimes.

The FBI leads the national effort to investigate hightech crimes, including cyber-based terrorism, espionage, 

computer intrusions, and major cyber fraud. The 

expansion of the Cyber’s Most Wanted list is a reflection 

of the FBI’s increased efforts in this area, McFeely said. 

“The cyber fugitives we seek have caused significant 

losses to individuals and to our economy,” he explained. 

“And cyber crime continues to pose a significant threat to 

our national security.”

We need your help. If you have information about any 

of the five individuals mentioned above or the other 

fugitives on our Cyber’s Most Wanted list, please submit a 

tip on our website or contact your local FBI office or the 

nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate.

Note: The fugitives pictured here may have been located 

since the above information was posted on our website. Please 

check our Cyber’s Most Wanted webpage at www.fbi.gov/

wanted/cyber for up-to-date information.

Five individuals have been added to our Cyber’s Most 

Wanted list for their roles in domestic and international 

hacking and fraud crimes collectively involving hundreds 

of thousands of victims and tens of millions of dollars in 

losses.

In announcing the addition of the new subjects—along 

with rewards of up to $100,000 for information leading 

to their arrests—Executive Assistant Director of our 

Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch 

Richard McFeely said, “Throughout its history, the FBI 

has depended on the public’s help and support to bring 

criminals to justice. That was true in the gangster era, 

and it’s just as true in the cyber era. We need the public’s 

help to catch these individuals who have made it their 

mission to spy on and steal from our nation and our 

citizens.”

The new fugitives on our Cyber’s Most Wanted list 

are:

▪ Pakistani nationals Farhan Arshad and Noor 

Aziz Uddin, wanted for their alleged involvement 

in an international telecommunications hacking 

scheme. Between 2008 and 2012, the pair gained 

unauthorized access to business telephone systems, 

resulting in losses exceeding $50 million. Arshad 

and Uddin are part of an international criminal 

ring that the FBI believes extends into Pakistan, 

the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Spain, 

Singapore, Italy, Malaysia and elsewhere.

▪ Carlos Perez-Melara, wanted for a variety of cyber 

crimes—including running a fraudulent website 

in 2003 that offered customers a way to “catch a 

cheating lover.” Those who took the bait downloaded 

spyware that secretly installed a program on their 

computers that allowed scammers to steal the victims’ 

identities and personal information.

▪ Syrian national Andrey Nabilevich Taame, wanted 

for his alleged role in Operation Ghost Click, a 

malware scheme that compromised more than 

four million computers in more than 100 countries 

between 2007 and October 2011; there were at least 

500,000 victims in the United States alone.
82 2013 The FBI Story

November 8, 2013

Public Corruption

Inside the Kwame

Kilpatrick Case

were supposed to help the community. Instead, the mayor 

spent large sums on himself for luxury vacations, spa 

treatments, and golf clubs.

The FBI opened a case on Kilpatrick in 2004, two years 

after he moved into the mayor’s mansion. “Initially, we 

had sources and a few cooperating defendants from other 

cases who revealed a pay to play scheme and that the 

mayor was behind it,” Beeckman said.

As the investigation unfolded, our agents—along 

with investigators from the Internal Revenue Service 

and other agencies—used court-ordered wiretaps and 

undercover operators to gather evidence. “Over the years, 

we employed every investigative technique we could,” 

Beeckman said.

A significant break in the case came when investigators 

discovered that Kilpatrick’s cell phone provider had kept 

an archive of all his text messages. “The messages were 

explicit,” Beeckman said. “He talked about bid rigging, 

bribes, and other criminal activity. He had no idea there 

would be a record of those messages.”

Investigators also followed the money, which left no 

doubt about Kilpatrick’s corruption. Before he became 

mayor, Kilpatrick’s paycheck from the state of Michigan 

was electronically deposited into his bank account, and 

he made regular withdrawals to pay bills and to get cash. 

After his election, he stopped making withdrawals and 

instead made only large cash deposits.

Kilpatrick’s bank records revealed more than $840,000 in 

unexplained expenditures above and beyond his salary as 

mayor—and none of that money was disclosed on his tax 

returns. “There were times,” Beeckman said, “when the 

mayor would hand one of the officers on his protective 

detail an envelope with cash and tell him to take it to the 

bank and pay his credit card bill.”

The beleaguered mayor pled guilty to two felony counts 

in 2008 and resigned his office. Two years later, he was 

indicted for mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion; in 

March 2013 he was found guilty of the wide-ranging 

racketeering conspiracy charges.

Why was Kilpatrick so brazen about his crimes? “He 

thought he was above the law,” Beeckman believes. “He 

thought he could do whatever he wanted and get away 

with it.”

That turned out not to be the case, thanks to the 

dedicated work of the investigators and prosecutors who 

brought Kilpatrick and his co-conspirators to justice.

When Kwame Kilpatrick became mayor of Detroit in 

2002, he promised to revitalize the city. Instead, he 

shamelessly used his position to steal from the citizens he 

had vowed to serve.

“Criminal activity was a way of life for him, and he 

constantly used the power of his office to look for new 

opportunities to make money illegally,” said Special 

Agent Robert Beeckman, who investigated the mayor 

and his corrupt regime for eight years.

Last month, a federal judge sentenced Kilpatrick to 

a 28-year prison term for his role in a wide-ranging 

racketeering conspiracy that included extortion, bribery, 

and fraud. Thirty-two others have also been convicted of 

crimes in connection with the case, including Kilpatrick’s 

contractor friend Bobby Ferguson, who received a 21-year 

jail term.

Kilpatrick and Ferguson established a “pay to play” system 

that made breaking the law standard operating procedure. 

Kilpatrick extorted city vendors, rigged bids, and took 

bribes. He used funds from non-profit civic organizations 

to line his pockets and those of his family. And he was 

unabashed about it.

“His crimes were not the result of a momentary lapse 

in judgment,” said a document prepared for the court 

by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District 

of Michigan. “He systematically exploited his office to 

enrich himself, his friends, and his family.” For example, 

Kilpatrick and Ferguson obtained more than $500,000 

from the state of Michigan and private donors for nonprofit organizations they controlled. The organizations 
2013 The FBI Story 83

November 15, 2013

Serial Killers

Part 3: Ted Bundy’s

Campaign of Terror

from around the country, provided insight from our 

Behavioral Analysis Unit, and—as the days stretched into 

weeks—added Bundy to our Ten Most Wanted Fugitives 

list on February 10, 1977.

Tragically, Bundy continued his murder spree while on 

the run. On the evening of January 14, he invaded a 

Florida State University sorority house, brutally killing 

two co-eds and leaving a third with serious injuries.

But the net was closing. Around 1:30 a.m. on February 

15, a Pensacola police officer noticed a stolen orange 

Volkswagen Beetle driving west on Cervantes Street 

and ordered the car to pull over. Bundy resisted but was 

eventually taken into custody.

The officer had no idea who was inside the car, but 

Bundy was quickly identified with the help of the 

FBI’s fugitive flyer and was soon back in Colorado to 

face murder charges. He was eventually convicted and 

executed, but not before admitting to more than two 

dozen murders over many years. There may have been 

even more. To this day, Ted Bundy remains one of the 

nation’s most deadly and notorious serial killers.

Note: This series will continue in 2014.

No one knows when or where Theodore “Ted” Bundy 

killed for the first time. It could have been during his 

teenage years or when he was in his early 20s in the late 

1960s. It might have been in Washington state, where he 

resided for many years, or on the East Coast, where he 

was born and lived as a young boy and had family ties.

But we do know that by 1974, Ted Bundy’s prolific 

reign of terror and murder was underway. In 

Washington state, young, attractive female college 

students began disappearing. Local police investigated, 

and clues began to emerge. Witnesses pointed to a 

Volkswagen Beetle and a young man on crutches or with 

an arm in a sling.

Bundy moved to Salt Lake City that summer, and the 

murders continued in Utah, Idaho, and Colorado. In 

August 1975, police arrested Bundy for the first time after 

pulling him over in his Volkswagen and finding suspicious 

items—including handcuffs, rope, and a ski mask—that 

investigators later linked to missing women. In February 

of the following year, he was found guilty of kidnapping 

and assaulting a Utah teenager who had managed to 

escape from him, landing in prison for up to 15 years.

Meanwhile, investigators from multiple states were 

piecing together the string of murders. In 1976, Bundy 

was charged with killing a vacationing nursing student, 

and he found himself in Aspen, Colorado in June 1977 for 

a preliminary hearing. Left alone at one point, Bundy let 

himself out of a second story window, jogged down Main 

Street, and disappeared. Extensive searches were made, 

and the FBI quickly began to gather and disseminate 

Bundy’s criminal history and identification information. 

Soon after, FBI agents swore out a federal arrest warrant 

for unlawful flight to avoid confinement, and a $100,000 

reward was offered for his capture.

Bundy didn’t make it far; he was located in Aspen a 

few days later. But he bided his time and seized another 

opportunity for escape on New Year’s Eve in 1977—

slipping through an opening in the ceiling of his cell and 

sneaking out through the jailer’s office.

A nationwide manhunt followed, and the FBI played 

a central role. We created a series of wanted posters and 

other identification material, processed latent fingerprints 

A $100,000 reward was offered for Ted Bundy’s capture.
84 2013 The FBI Story

November 19, 2013

Taking Stock

Corporate Execs Get Scammed

McClain conspired with loan brokers to fraudulently 

induce corporate executives—from the U.S. and 

abroad—to pledge millions of dollars of stock as collateral 

in return for a loan. These loans were attractive to 

corporate executives: by using their stock as collateral, 

they would receive a loan for typically 30 to 50 percent 

less than the current market value of their shares, and, 

unless they missed a loan payment or saw a significant 

drop in stock prices, they would get their stock back upon 

repayment.

In reality, though, Argyll had no intention of giving 

the stocks back. They were quickly sold on the open 

market, sometimes even before the loans closed. And 

since Argyll had no other source of income, proceeds 

from the sale of the stocks were what McClain used to 

fund the loans...and he pocketed the difference between 

the loan amount and what the stocks actually sold for.

At the end of the loan term, the borrowers expected 

to get their stocks back, but McClain was full of phony 

excuses as to why that wasn’t happening—the stocks were 

tied up in a hedge fund, the borrower had defaulted on 

the loan by missing a payment, etc. And in some cases, 

selling the stocks caused a drop in stock prices, which in 

turn caused an actual loan default.

The moral of the story? Whether you’re a high-powered 

company executive or getting paid by the hour, before 

entering into a business arrangement, do your due 

diligence—research the individuals/companies involved, 

consult an independent third-party expert, and above 

all, remember that if sounds too good to be true, it 

probably is.

It was a slick financial scam. A company that claimed 

to be an institutional lender offered loans to corporate 

executives, accepted as collateral the stock that the 

executives held in their publicly traded companies, and 

then—unbeknownst to those executives—sold their 

stock out from under them.

But at its core, it was also a classic Ponzi scheme, a 

nearly century-old criminal technique that involves 

using proceeds stolen from victims as a way to keep a 

fraud going as long as possible.

After an investigation by FBI San Diego—with assistance 

from the Securities and Exchange Commission—the 

president of the company, Douglas McClain, Jr., was tried 

and convicted this past May in connection with this 

securities fraud scheme. (Included in the 2012 indictment 

was McClain’s partner, James Miceli, who died shortly 

before trial.) Just recently, McClain was sentenced to 15 

years in federal prison and ordered to pay $81 million in 

restitution to his victims and to forfeit millions in illgotten gains, including cash and securities, a luxury home 

and car, a houseboat, and diamond jewelry.

McClain ran Argyll Equities, Inc., a company that 

operated in several U.S. states, including California.

From at least 2004 to 2011, the company advertised itself 

as an institutional lender with significant assets that 

made loans to corporate officers and directors who may 

have been going through some professional hard times, 

wanted to expand their operations, or needed cash for 

personal reasons. And even though most were paper-rich 

because of their stock holdings, as company “insiders” 

they were not permitted to sell their stocks outright 

because of federal securities laws and regulations.
2013 The FBI Story 85

November 22, 2013

The JFK Assassination

Former Agent Recalls His

Role in the Investigation

window where Oswald waited for the presidential 

motorcade to come into view. “We re-enacted the entire 

thing very, very carefully,” he said. “I stood up there and 

we took Oswald’s rifle, with the scope on it, and set it 

up.” He also examined the revolver Oswald used to kill 

Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit shortly before he was 

apprehended.

Frazier, who testified several times before the Warren 

Commission regarding his findings, is well aware 

of the many conspiracy theories surrounding the 

Kennedy assassination—but he remains convinced 

that Oswald was the only shooter. “There has never 

been anything to indicate positively that anybody else was 

involved,” he said.

Beyond the facts of the case and the volumes of findings 

Frazier’s firearms and ballistic examinations produced, 

the assassination still evokes an emotional response from 

him 50 years later. “It was a sad situation,” he said. “Just 

remembering that it was Kennedy and what a personality 

he had. ... It was a terrible, terrible thing.”

Frazier is proud of the work he did on what turned out to 

be the most significant case of his career. All these years 

later, he is confident that the work he and his colleagues 

conducted was meticulous and thorough. “We knew we 

did the best that could have been done.”

On that autumn Friday 50 years ago today, when John F. 

Kennedy’s motorcade was turning onto Dealey Plaza in 

Dallas just beneath the Texas School Book Depository, 

Robert Frazier was at work at FBI Headquarters in 

Washington. The 44-year-old special agent—the Bureau’s 

lead firearms and ballistics examiner—had no idea that 

he was about to be given the most important assignment 

of his career.

“It was around 11:30 that morning when we first 

heard about the shooting,” Frazier said recently at his 

Northern Virginia home. Now 94, memories of events 

that transpired five decades ago are indelibly etched in 

his mind.

After learning of the assassination, the chief of the 

FBI Laboratory called in Frazier and two other veteran 

examiners. Frazier recalls the chief’s instructions: 

“He said, ‘I want each of you men to make separate 

comparisons and examinations, and then compare your 

notes and see if they agree.’”

By that evening, as a shocked country tried to 

comprehend Kennedy’s assassination, FBI agents and 

other federal officers had already begun delivering 

evidence to the FBI Laboratory—then located in 

Washington—including the rifle that Lee Harvey Oswald 

used to kill the president.

Well after midnight, Frazier and his colleagues went 

to the Secret Service garage to gather evidence from 

the presidential limousine. The vehicle had been flown 

from Dallas back to Washington that afternoon. “We 

examined that car very thoroughly that same night,” 

Frazier said.

That was the first of many sleepless nights for Frazier and 

his fellow examiners as the investigation unfolded. “We 

never got home Friday night or Saturday, but we got home 

Sunday for about five hours of sleep,” he recalled. Frazier’s 

wife wanted to attend Kennedy’s funeral procession 

along Pennsylvania Avenue that Monday, he said, and he 

accompanied her. “Then I went back to work and didn’t 

get home again until Wednesday.”

Over the course of the next two years, Frazier immersed 

himself in the investigation. He traveled to Dallas and 

positioned himself at the same sixth-floor book depository 

Former Special Agent Robert Frazier, 94, talks about working on the 

Kennedy assassination investigation. 

Scan this QR code with your smartphone

to access a related video, or visit

www.fbi.gov/jfk50years.
86 2013 The FBI Story

November 25, 2013

Latest Hate Crime 

Statistics

Annual Report Shows

Slight Decrease

▪ 39.6 percent of the victims of crimes against 

persons suffered simple assaults, while 37.5 percent 

were intimidated and 21.5 percent were victims of 

aggravated assault. (Law enforcement also reported 

10 murders and 15 rapes as hate crimes.)

▪ An overwhelming majority—75.6 percent—of the 

victims of crimes against property were victimized by 

acts of destruction, damage, and/or vandalism.

▪ Of the 5,331 known offenders, 54.6 percent were 

white and 23.3 percent were black.

Recent Changes to Hate Crime Data Collection

Beginning in January of this year, new UCR data 

collection methods were enacted, allowing law 

enforcement to get even more specific when submitting 

bias motivation information. For example, as a result 

of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate 

Crime Prevention Act, agencies can now report on 

crimes motivated by “gender identity” bias and “crimes 

committed by, and crimes directed against, juveniles.” 

And a federal directive enabled our UCR Program to 

expand and/or modify its data collection categories for 

race and ethnicity. (This enhanced 2013 hate crime data 

will be published in 2014.)

FBI’s Role in Combating Hate Crimes

In addition to our annual hate crime report—published 

to help provide a more accurate accounting of the 

problem—the FBI is the sole investigative force for 

criminal violations of federal civil rights statutes. As a 

matter of fact, hate crime is the number one priority in 

our civil rights program, and we opened some 200 hate 

crime investigations during 2012.

But in addition to our investigations, we also work closely 

with our state and local partners on their investigations—

offering FBI resources, forensic expertise, and experience 

in identifying and proving hate-based motivations. 

We participate in hate crime working groups around 

the country to help develop strategies that address 

local problems. And we conduct training for local law 

enforcement, minority and religious organizations, and 

community groups to reduce civil rights abuses.

The FBI has just released its hate crime statistics report 

for 2012, and the numbers show that we as a nation still 

have a way to go toward alleviating these crimes that 

have such a devastating impact on communities.

For the 2012 time frame, law enforcement agencies 

reported 5,796 hate crime incidents involving 6,718 

offenses, down from 2011 figures of 6,222 incidents 

involving 7,254 offenses. Also during 2012, there were 

7,164 hate crime victims reported (which include 

individuals, businesses, institutions, and society as a 

whole), down from 7,713 in 2011.

The data contained in Hate Crime Statistics, 2012 is a 

subset of the information that law enforcement submits to 

the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. The 

full hate crime report can be viewed on our website, but 

here are a few highlights:

▪ 48.3 percent of the 5,790 single-bias incidents were 

racially motivated, while 19.6 percent resulted from 

sexual orientation bias and 19 percent from religious 

bias.

▪ Of the 7,164 hate crime victims, 55.4 percent 

were victims of crimes against persons and 41.8 

percent were victims of crimes against property. 

The remaining 2.8 percent were victims of crimes 

against society (like drug offenses, gambling, and 

prostitution).
2013 The FBI Story 87

November 29, 2013

NICS Turns 15

Stats Show Success of FBI’s Gun 

Background Check System

A NICS examiner reviews background information to determine if 

prohibitive criteria exists. 

While most NICS checks return immediate dispositions 

of “proceed” or “deny,” about eight percent are delayed, 

usually because of incomplete criminal history records.

By law, the NICS section must make a determination 

within three days or the transaction may be allowed to 

proceed. It’s during that period that NICS staff research 

missing information to update the records and create 

a clearer picture of applicants. Last year alone, the 

NICS section filled in the blanks on more than 34,000 

incomplete criminal history records and then shared the 

information with state agencies.

Records are not kept on individuals whose 

transactions are approved to proceed. By law, they are 

purged within 24 hours. NICS has an appeal process 

in place for individuals whose transactions are denied.

In addition to firearms, the Safe Explosives Act of 2003 

requires background checks as part of the licensing 

process for individuals shipping or receiving explosives. 

The requests are submitted to NICS by the Bureau of 

Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), 

and the ATF makes the final determinations. To date, 

the NICS has processed more than 700,000 explosives 

background checks; in 2012, the NICS processed 148,856 

checks and denied 3,077.

The NICS employs nearly 500 people and operates 

17 hours a day (8 a.m. to 1 a.m.), 364 days a year 

(closed on Christmas). The system can—and does—

routinely process more than 80,000 requests a day. Last 

December, the NICS processed 2.7 million background 

checks—177,170 in a single day on December 21. 

According to a 2012 NICS report, the highest volume of 

background check requests usually occurs on the day after 

Thanksgiving.

Fifteen years ago, on November 30, 1998, the FBI flipped 

the switch on the National Instant Criminal Background 

Check System, or NICS, a provision of the 1993 Brady 

Act that requires background checks on individuals 

purchasing firearms or receiving them through some 

other means.

The goal at the time was to disqualify any transfers of 

firearms to ineligible individuals while at the same time 

ensuring timely transactions for eligible individuals. 

Today, as the FBI-run background check system marks its 

anniversary, successes are seen daily and in real-time on 

both fronts.

Since its inception, the NICS has processed more 

than 177 million background checks requested by 

gun sellers, or federal firearms licensees (FFLs). On 

its busiest days, the system processes more than 10,000 

automated checks an hour across 94 million records in 

FBI criminal databases, including the National Crime 

Information Center (NCIC), the Interstate Identification 

Index (III), and the NICS index of 11 million individuals 

who fall into certain categories that prohibit them from 

receiving firearms. Nine out of 10 NICS determinations 

are instantaneous, so FFLs know immediately whether to 

proceed with transactions or deny them. To date, NICS 

queries of criminal databases have resulted in 1,065,090 

denials, with 88,479 in 2012 alone.

“The statistics for denials can stand on their own with 

regards to how well the system works in keeping firearms 

out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them,” said 

Steve Fischer, a spokesman for the NICS, which is run by 

the Bureau’s Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) 

Division in West Virginia. 

The most common reasons for denials are prior 

criminal convictions, domestic violence, drug history, 

and fugitive status.

In 37 states, NICS background checks are conducted 

by the FBI when purchases are initiated at one of the 

country’s 46,895 licensed gun sellers. The sellers contact 

the NICS through an online electronic system or through 

one of three call centers, which run the names against the 

databases. Thirteen states perform their own background 

checks by utilizing the NICS.
88 2013 The FBI Story

December 3, 2013

Attempted Extortion

Aspiring Actor’s New

Role: Inmate

students.” Shah used various other means to avoid 

detection—like conducting online research from public 

places that provided anonymous Wi-Fi and using prepaid 

debit cards to purchase postage online for the extortion 

letters.

But things didn’t turn out as he planned. Shah had been 

involved in a domestic dispute with his roommate several 

weeks before he established the PO Box. When police 

were called to the scene in May 2012, they discovered the 

fake ID, which they checked against the FBI’s National 

Crime Information Center (NCIC) database. Shah told 

the officers he was an actor and that the bogus driver’s 

license was merely a prop. The NCIC check confirmed 

that no criminal activity was associated with the name 

Ray Amin.

Later, when agents discovered that “Ray Amin” had 

opened the PO Box connected with the extortion 

scheme, they ran their own NCIC check, and Shah’s 

name came back associated with Amin.

From there, agents were able to monitor Shah’s real 

online accounts, which led from California to Chicago, 

where video surveillance showed him mailing more 

extortion letters. The FBI Laboratory later matched 

his DNA with the letters. Shah was arrested in August 

2012, pled guilty to the extortion scheme in May 2013, 

and was sentenced in September. Lafferty credits the 

U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West 

Virginia with helping to bring the investigation to a quick 

and successful resolution.

After his arrest, Shah claimed his plan was to draw 

attention to himself. “He imagined the case going public 

and him gaining notoriety and somehow benefitting from 

that,” Lafferty said. “That obviously didn’t happen.”

Although the fake ID quickly led agents to Shah, Lafferty 

noted that the crime was ill-advised from the start. “The 

technology and investigative capability the FBI and our 

partners possess would make it extremely difficult to pull 

off an extortion scheme like this,” he said. “He really 

never had a chance.”

It was an outrageous plan worthy of a Hollywood thriller. 

But an aspiring actor’s real-life attempt to extort tens 

of millions of dollars from wealthy targets earned him 

decidedly bad reviews in federal court and a new role for 

the next seven years—as a prison inmate.

Vivek Shah was pursuing an acting career in Los 

Angeles in 2012 when he thought of a better way to 

make money than from the bit parts he had landed in 

movies. He planned to extort billionaires—a coal tycoon 

and movie producer among them—by threatening to kill 

members of their families if they didn’t pay.

“He was very ambitious,” said Special Agent Jim Lafferty, 

who works out of our Pittsburgh Division and specializes 

in white-collar crime. Shah, 26, attempted to extort 

more than $120 million from seven prominent victims, 

including movie producer Harvey Weinstein ($4 million 

demanded), Groupon co-founder Eric Lefkofsky ($16 

million demanded), coal executive Chris Cline ($13 

million demanded), and oil and gas billionaire Terry 

Pegula ($34 million demanded).

He chose victims after doing online research about the 

world’s wealthiest people, and his targets were instructed 

to wire money to offshore bank accounts. To set up 

those accounts, Shah needed a proof of address, so he 

established a Post Office Box in Los Angeles using a fake 

driver’s license bearing the name Ray Amin.

“He had the fake ID created for the sole purpose of 

opening the PO Box,” Lafferty said. “He purchased it 

from someone who makes false IDs for underage college 

Left: An excerpt of a letter from Vivek Shah, who attempted to extort 

more than $120 million from seven prominent victims.
2013 The FBI Story 89

December 6, 2013

Billion-Dollar 

Investment Fraud

Undercover Agents

Uncover the Scheme

sounding titles: Fed trade administrator, compliance 

officer, underwriter, banking expert, bank liaison, and 

trader.

The scheme, which offered international investment 

opportunities through the trading of bank securities, 

gradually progressed to its ultimate goal—to gain 

control of all or a portion of the victim’s money.

And along the way, our undercover “investor” was told 

various lies by the scammers, including:

▪ Only a privileged few were invited to participate in 

these types of investment opportunities and there 

were only a few traders in the world authorized to 

offer them.

▪ The investment program was regulated by the Federal 

Reserve Bank, had to follow strict federal guidelines, 

and was overseen by a Fed trade administrator and 

Fed compliance officer.

▪ The investment’s extraordinary rates of return were 

the result of conducting multiple trades in rapid 

succession.

▪ One of the primary reasons these trading programs 

existed was to generate funds for humanitarian 

purposes and that a portion of the investor’s profits 

must be used towards that end.

By October 2008, we had enough evidence—e-mails, 

phone calls, in-person meetings, etc.—to get a criminal 

indictment against eight co-conspirators. And by going 

after these criminals proactively, we were able to stop 

them before they harmed actual victims.

For a group of financial fraudsters, it seemed like the 

ultimate get in an investment scam—a victim willing to 

hand over $1 billion.

However, like victims of financial scams everywhere, 

these criminals should have paid more attention to the “if 

it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” adage—the 

wealthy “victim” in this case was actually an undercover 

FBI agent. And last month, the last three members of 

this group of con artists were sentenced to federal prison 

for their role in this scam. Several co-conspirators have 

previously pled guilty.

Beginning in 2005, the two-year undercover 

operation named Collateral Monte took leads from 

previous complaints, victim referrals, cooperating 

witnesses, and information from regulatory agencies 

and specifically targeted criminals who lured 

potential victims with offers of substantial returns on 

investments with little or no risk (also known as highyield investment programs). And because the Orange 

County, California area served as an ideal backdrop for 

wealthy victim-investors, it was there that we set up a 

bogus financial advisory company purportedly to invest 

money from wealthy residents, including doctors and 

retirees. Our “company,” however, never interacted with 

actual investors...just suspected con men.

This particular case got underway with an Internet 

posting from an individual claiming he had access to 

a “private placement program” where the funds were 

guaranteed by the Federal Reserve Bank (the Fed), that 

a $10 million investment would return $100 million after 

50 weeks, and that he also had access to other private 

placement programs with greater return rates but required 

higher minimum investments.

We e-mailed the author of the posting and said we had a 

potential investor interested in the offer. Over the next 

few months, the scam’s operators appeared to be working 

directly out of the high-yield investment scam playbook—

our investor was first introduced to some lower-level 

players whose job was to basically vet potential investors 

to ensure they actually had the money they claimed. 

Eventually, members of our undercover team were 

introduced to others higher up the chain with official-
90 2013 The FBI Story

December 9, 2013

A Byte Out of History

The Kidnapping of

Frank Sinatra, Jr.

Sinatra wait for a ransom demand, pay it, and then allow 

the Bureau to track the money and find the kidnappers.

The following evening, Keenan called a third conspirator, 

John Irwin, who was to be the ransom contact. Irwin 

called the elder Sinatra and told him to await the 

kidnappers’ instructions. On December 10, he passed 

along the demand for $240,000 in ransom. Sinatra, 

Sr. gathered the money and gave it to the FBI, which 

photographed it all and made the drop per Keenan’s 

instructions between two school buses in Sepulveda, 

California during the early morning hours of December 

11.

While Keenan and Amsler picked up the money, 

Irwin had gotten nervous and decided to free the 

victim. Sinatra, Jr. was found in Bel Air after walking 

a few miles and alerting a security guard. To avoid the 

press, he was put in the trunk of the guard’s patrol car 

and taken to his mother Nancy’s home.

Young Sinatra described what he knew to FBI agents, 

but he had barely seen two of the kidnappers and only 

heard the voice of the third conspirator. Still, the Bureau 

tracked the clues back to the house where Sinatra had 

been held in Canoga Park and gathered even more 

evidence there.

Meanwhile, with the FBI’s progress being recounted in 

the press, the criminals felt the noose tightening. Irwin 

broke first, spilling the beans to his brother, who called 

the FBI office in San Diego. Hours later, Keenan and 

Amsler were captured, and nearly all of the ransom was 

recovered.

Although the defense tried to argue that Frank Sinatra, 

Jr. had engineered the kidnapping as a publicity stunt, the 

FBI had strong evidence to the contrary. The clincher 

was a confession letter written earlier by Keenan and left 

in a safe-deposit box. In the end, Keenan, Amsler, and 

Irwin were all convicted.

Five decades ago yesterday—just days after the 

assassination of President John F. Kennedy—a group of 

amateur criminals hoping to strike it rich engineered one 

of the most infamous kidnappings in American history.

For several weeks, two 23-year-old former high school 

classmates from Los Angeles—Barry Keenan and Joe 

Amsler—had been following a 19-year-old singer from 

city to city, waiting to make their move. Their target: 

none other than Frank Sinatra, Jr., son of one of the most 

famous singers in the world, “Old Blue Eyes” himself. 

Their plan was bold but simple...snatch the young Sinatra 

and demand a hefty ransom from his wealthy father.

The pair decided to strike on the evening of December 

8, 1963. Sinatra, Jr., just beginning his career in music, 

was performing at Harrah’s Club Lodge in Lake Tahoe 

on the border of California and Nevada. Around 9 p.m. 

he was resting in his dressing room with a friend when 

Keenan knocked on the door, pretending to be delivering 

a package. Keenan and Amsler entered, tied up Sinatra’s 

friend with tape, and blindfolded their victim. They took 

him out a side door to their waiting car.

The singer’s friend quickly freed himself and notified 

authorities. Roadblocks were set up, and the kidnappers 

were actually stopped by police...but they bluffed their 

way through and drove on to their hideout in a suburb of 

Los Angeles.

By 9:40, the FBI office in Reno was brought in on 

the case. Agents met with young Sinatra’s father in 

Reno and his mother in Bel Air, California. The motive 

was presumed to be money. The FBI recommended that 

Left: Kidnappers demanded a ransom of $240,000 for Frank Sinatra, 

Jr. Agents used this suitcase for the cash provided by the Sinatra 

family.
2013 The FBI Story 91

December 12, 2013

TEDAC Marks 10-Year

Anniversary

A Potent Weapon in the

War on Terror

be or reasonably suspected of being involved in terrorist 

activity.

Subject matter experts from TEDAC can quickly 

deploy to incidents—such as the Boston Marathon 

bombings last April—and work with FBI Evidence 

Response Teams and local law enforcement to collect 

critical evidence and quickly transport it to the FBI 

Laboratory in Quantico for analysis.

TEDAC is capable of more than evidence collection for 

criminal prosecution, though. “Since we also partner 

with the military and the intelligence community, our 

work is utilized by many different sources,” Carl said. 

The military, for example, uses TEDAC intelligence for 

force protection and to disrupt terror networks. Decisionmakers can count on TEDAC’s intelligence—based on 

forensic science—to help them form policy.

“And our interagency partners use TEDAC for research,” 

Carl added, explaining that agencies can “check out” a 

bomb—much like a library book—for testing and further 

analysis. “We maintain all of the devices that we’ve 

collected going back to the inception of the center.”

Looking back over a decade and forward to the 

future—TEDAC is building a state-of-the-art facility in 

Huntsville, Alabama—Carl said, “I see TEDAC as good 

government. The fact that you have multiple agencies 

coming together, working toward one common cause, 

without duplicating resources means that everyone 

benefits. And that helps make the country safer.”

It has been 10 years since the FBI established the 

Terrorist Explosive Device Analytical Center (TEDAC), 

and since that time the multi-agency operation—

sometimes referred to as America’s bomb library—has 

become an essential tool in the nation’s fight against 

terrorism.

Before TEDAC, no single government entity was 

responsible for analyzing and exploiting evidence and 

intelligence related to the improvised explosive devices 

(IEDs) used by international and domestic terrorists. 

Today, TEDAC coordinates all those efforts.

Located at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, 

“TEDAC is the government’s single repository for IEDs,” 

said Special Agent Greg Carl, TEDAC director. “The 

evidence and intelligence we gather from these explosives 

is used by law enforcement, the military, the intelligence 

community, and by our political decision-makers. There is 

no question that the work we have done—and continue 

to do—has helped to save American lives.”

Whether bombs come from the battlefields of 

Afghanistan or from homegrown terrorists within our 

borders, TEDAC’s 13 government agency partners and 

17 external partners collect the devices and send them to 

TEDAC to be analyzed and catalogued.

“We exploit the devices forensically,” said Carl, a veteran 

FBI agent who is also a bomb technician. The results are 

analyzed by TEDAC’s Intelligence Unit and disseminated 

to law enforcement entities and the intelligence 

community to provide key intelligence on terrorist 

networks. “Based on the forensic evidence—DNA, 

fingerprints, and other biometrics—we try to identify the 

bomb maker and also make associations, linking devices 

together from separate incidents.”

Since its creation in 2003, TEDAC has examined more 

than 100,000 IEDs from around the world and currently 

receives submissions at the rate of 800 per month. 

As a result, Carl said, “we have identified over 1,000 

individuals with potential ties to terrorism.”

Also based on TEDAC analysis, more than 100 

people have been named to the government’s Terrorist 

Watchlist, a database that identifies subjects known to 

A TEDAC analyst catalogs evidence.

Scan this QR code with your smartphone

to access related video and photos, or visit 

www.fbi.gov/tedacanniversary.
92 2013 The FBI Story

December 17, 2013

Left: Johannes Van Den Hoogen, FBI legal attaché in Copenhagen, at 

Danish National Police headquarters. 

Legat Copenhagen

Partnerships Pay Dividends at 

Nordic Outpost

terrorism, organized crime and financial fraud. If dots 

from a U.S. case lead to any of the Nordic countries, the 

FBI can call on its partners; if the dots lead back to the 

U.S., agents in field offices can assist by running down 

leads.

In a recent child pornography case in Finland, 

investigators tracked obscene images to the United 

States. The FBI opened its own parallel case, interviewed 

victimized children here, and helped Finnish police lock 

up a criminal. That mutually beneficial cooperation 

is common, said Van Den Hoogen. When it comes 

to international fugitives, this close cooperation is 

paramount. In the past year, the skilled work of Swedish 

police officers helped to locate two fugitives sought by the 

FBI.

“When cooperation is built on friendships and your 

partners also see you care about their country, they 

will go to extra lengths to work with you,” he said.

In Denmark, where Legat Copenhagen was established 

in 1999, local police know they can rely on the FBI’s 

extensive network if a case reaches beyond its borders. 

“We can take advantage of your network, your 

relationships, your contacts,” said Jens Henrik Højbjerg, 

commissioner of the Danish National Police, which 

covers the country’s 12 police districts as well as its 

intelligence service. “And this is very, very helpful.”

Denmark has a relatively low crime rate, but the region 

isn’t immune to threats seen in lower latitudes. In 2011, 

a lone gunman killed 69 people at a youth camp outside 

Oslo, Norway. In 2008, U.S. citizen David Headley 

plotted a terrorist attack on a Danish newspaper on 

behalf of al Qaeda. Violent biker gangs are as troubling 

to Danish authorities as street gangs are to police in 

the United States. Cyber crime, meanwhile, respects no 

borders, a potential problem for isolated countries.

“When it comes to cyber crime, we are grateful that 

we have cooperation,” said Commissioner Højbjerg.

Van Den Hoogen said the benefits flow both ways. “Treat 

your partners well and work with them and you will get 

stuff turned around very quickly,” he said.

When militants attacked a gas processing facility in 

Algeria earlier this year, killing three Americans, the 

FBI already had a web of partners in place to help work 

the case. The network extended from Algiers, where the 

Bureau has an office, or legal attaché (legat), to the FBI’s 

office in Copenhagen, Denmark, which maintains close 

ties with all the Nordic countries, to Norway, home to 

one of the gas facility’s owners and five of the nearly 40 

hostages killed there.

Throughout the siege, information flowed between agents 

on the ground, workers in hiding and their employers, 

Norwegian police, and the Bureau’s International 

Operations Division, which runs 64 legat offices around 

the world. The familiar relationships—cultivated under 

less dire circumstances—helped authorities work to 

quickly assemble a picture of what was happening. The 

ensuing probe led to terrorism charges in July against a 

self-proclaimed al Qaeda leader in North Africa.

“We worked very closely with the Norwegian police 

to investigate the attack,” said Special Agent Johannes 

Van Den Hoogen, the legal attaché in Copenhagen 

since 2012. “Throughout the crisis, we shared 

information about what we saw and heard. It’s a great 

example of how we use our legat network to work with a 

partner in our area.”

The case illustrates how relationships forged by our 

overseas outposts can yield unforeseen dividends. The 

Copenhagen legat—the FBI’s liaison with Sweden, 

Norway, Iceland, and Finland, in addition to its host 

country—investigates or assists on many of the same 

types of crimes seen elsewhere in the world: cyber, 

Scan this QR code with your smartphone

to access related videos, or visit

www.fbi.gov/legatcopenhagen.
2013 The FBI Story 93

December 20, 2013

‘Serial Infector’ 

Gets 39 Years

Linked to Hepatitis C Outbreak

Medical syringes seized by law enforcement from inside health care 

worker David Kwiatkowski’s car.

information about his activities was shared with those 

states, which began their own reviews.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

coordinated the overall public health investigation, which 

ruled out other possible methods of transmission and 

suspected that a drug diversion scheme was the source 

of the outbreak. During their investigation, public health 

authorities recommended that more than 12,000 people 

who may have crossed paths with Kwiatkowski in various 

hospitals get tested for possible hepatitis C infection.

In June 2012, the FBI’s Boston Field Office opened a 

full criminal investigation into the outbreak...and into 

Kwiatkowsi. The investigation involved several search 

warrants and included a search of Kwiatkowski’s vehicle 

that uncovered needles and syringes. Working with public 

health agencies along with other federal, state, and local 

law enforcement partners, we gathered evidence and 

interviewed dozens of people who either worked with 

Kwiatkowski or were patients at hospitals that employed 

him. By July 2012, we were able to arrest him.

According to New Hampshire U.S. Attorney John 

Kacavas, the 39-year sentence imposed on Kwiatkowski 

“ensures that this serial infector will no longer be in 

a position to harm innocent and vulnerable people, 

extinguishing once and for all the pernicious threat he 

posed to public health and safety.”

The vast majority of health care professionals are 

dedicated individuals committed to their patients. But in 

a recent investigation, we came across a hospital worker 

who was more committed to his own selfish needs than 

to his patients—he knowingly put patients at risk of 

exposure to the hepatitis C virus so he could steal and 

abuse a powerful narcotic prescribed for use during 

medical procedures.

David Kwiatkowski—who pled guilty to a scheme to 

divert and obtain the controlled substance fentanyl as 

well as to product tampering, was sentenced earlier this 

month to 39 years in prison. Because of Kwiatowski’s 

actions, at least 45 people became infected with hepatitis 

C, a virus that attacks the liver and may cause liver 

damage, liver failure, or cancer. At least one patient died 

as a result of the infection.

You see, Kwiatkowski himself was infected with 

hepatitis C. And he admitted that while employed at 

a New Hampshire hospital and at hospitals in several 

other states, he stole syringes of fentanyl prepared for 

patients about to undergo medical procedures, injected 

himself with the drug, and refilled those same syringes 

with saline—tainting them with his hepatitis C-positive 

blood—for use on unsuspecting victims. As a trained 

health care worker, Kwiatkowski would have known 

that hepatitis C, a blood-borne viral disease, is primarily 

transmitted by exposure to infected blood.

How the case began. In May 2012, the New Hampshire 

Department of Health and Human Services began a 

public health investigation after it was notified by an area 

hospital of four patients newly diagnosed with hepatitis 

C. Three of the individuals had been patients in the 

hospital’s Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory (CCL), 

while the fourth was a CCL employee (Kwiatkowski). 

Although Kwiatkowski led the hospital to believe he had 

been previously unaware of his hepatitis C status, the 

investigation showed that he had known of his infection 

since at least 2010.

Testing confirmed that all four shared a genetically 

similar virus, indicating a common source of infection. 

Because Kwiatkowski had previously worked as a traveling 

technician in multiple hospitals in several states, the 
94 2013 The FBI Story

December 23, 2013

Cyber Stalker

A Cautionary Tale About Online 

Romance and Revenge

Hile’s primary target for revenge was the man who 

duped him, but South Africa was too far away. So using 

what Kim described as “circular logic,” Hile went after 

the woman. “He knew she didn’t have anything to do 

with the romance scam,” Kim said, “but he believed she 

bore some responsibility. In his mind, the mere fact that 

those photos were used indicated that she was somehow 

responsible for what had happened to him.”

An avid Internet user and computer gamer, Hile was 

determined to learn the woman’s identity. He conducted 

an extensive online search and used hacking tools. 

“Eventually, he was able to hack into her e-mail account,” 

Kim said, and compiled detailed personal information 

about the woman and her live-in boyfriend as well as their 

extended family and friends.

Armed with her address, Hile purchased a bus ticket 

from Michigan to San Diego to exact his revenge.

Fortunately, Hile’s family sensed that he was planning 

something and alerted authorities, which eventually led 

to Hile’s detention in San Diego—about a mile from the 

woman’s residence.

At the time of his arrest, he was in possession of the 

woman’s address, telephone numbers, and information 

such as her favorite restaurant. He also had duct tape, zip 

ties, and a to-do list that included obtaining a knife and 

chloroform.

“Had he gotten there,” Kim said, “we are convinced he 

would have hurt or killed the victims.” Hile was found 

guilty by a San Diego jury in August 2013.

Kim believes this case should serve as a cautionary 

tale for others. When it comes to social media sites, 

he said, “You really have to know the people you are 

communicating with. If you don’t absolutely know who’s 

on the other end, you shouldn’t be sending personal 

information or photographs. The Internet is an amazing 

thing,” he added, “but it’s also a very scary thing.”

A 29-year-old Michigan man was sentenced to five years 

in federal prison last week—the maximum allowed by 

law—for interstate stalking in a bizarre case of online 

romance gone bad.

Brian Curtis Hile traveled to San Diego from 

Michigan in 2011 intending to kill a woman and her 

boyfriend after the pair had unwittingly gotten caught 

up in Hile’s virtual love affair.

Hile had been ensnared in a “catfish” scheme—in 

which a person uses social media to pretend to be 

someone they’re not, typically to engage in misleading 

online romances. During the course of an Internet-only 

relationship that lasted two years, Hile exchanged explicit 

photos and romantic communications with someone he 

believed to be a woman. When he learned that “she” 

was actually a man living in South Africa, Hile became 

enraged and vowed to find the man who deceived 

him—and the woman whose images played a role in the 

deception.

“The woman in this case was a victim twice,” said Special 

Agent Steve Kim in our San Diego Division. Kim, a 

member of the Computer and Technology Crime HighTech Response Team—a multi-agency task force that 

apprehends and prosecutes criminals who use technology 

to prey on victims—explained that when the woman 

was 18 years old, she took revealing pictures of herself for 

personal use, never intending for them to be seen publicly. 

Those photos were later stolen from her online account, 

which she was aware of. “But she had no idea what was 

being done with them,” Kim said.
2013 The FBI Story 95

December 26, 2013

The Year in Review

A Look at FBI Cases, Part 1

terrorists. The 19-year-old tried to travel to the Arabian 

Peninsula to join and fight with a violent al Qaeda group 

that has taken responsibility for multiple attacks on 

Yemeni forces, including a suicide bombing in 2012 that 

killed more than 100 soldiers. 

Former U.S. soldier indicted: A U.S. citizen who 

formerly served in the Army was indicted in June for 

conspiring to provide material support to a foreign 

terrorist organization. The 30-year-old man allegedly 

wanted to fight alongside an al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist 

group in Syria. 

Far-fetched terror plan: Two New York men were 

charged in June with conspiracy to provide material 

support to terrorists. Their scheme involved creating 

a remotely operated X-ray radiation-emitting device 

designed to kill people silently. Their targets were 

perceived enemies of Israel. 

Tsarnaev charged: In April, 19-year-old Dzhokhar 

Tsarnaev was charged with using a weapon of mass 

destruction for his role in the Boston Marathon 

bombings. The attacks killed three people and injured 

more than 260 others. 

Suicide bombing: An Oregon resident was charged in 

March for his role in a 2009 suicide bombing. The man 

allegedly assisted an individual who participated in the 

attack at the headquarters of Pakistan’s intelligence 

service in Lahore that killed approximately 30 individuals 

and injured 300 others. 

Bin Laden associate arrested: An associate of Osama 

bin Laden was arrested in March for conspiring to 

kill Americans. The individual held a key position in 

al Qaeda and appeared with bin Laden after the 9/11 

attacks to threaten further attacks against the U.S.

Part 2: Cyber crime, espionage, fraud, and more (page 96)

The FBI worked thousands of investigations during 

2013, involving everything from extremists bent on 

terror to cyber thieves, financial fraudsters, and murder 

and hostage situations. As the year comes to a close, we 

take our annual look back at some of the Bureau’s most 

significant cases.

Part 1 focuses on our top investigative priority—

protecting the nation from terrorist attack. We work 

toward that goal with our local, state, and federal law 

enforcement and intelligence community partners, 

primarily through our Joint Terrorism Task Forces around 

the country.

Here are some of the top terror cases of 2013, in 

reverse chronological order:

Airport bomb plot: A 58-year-old man was charged 

earlier this month with attempting to explode a car bomb 

at a Kansas airport as an act of jihad against the U.S. He 

was arrested as a result of an undercover investigation. 

The device provided to him by our operatives was inert 

and posed no danger to the public. 

Attempt to join al Qaeda: A New York man was 

arrested in October for attempting to join al Qaeda in 

the Arabian Peninsula and conspiring to commit murder 

overseas. The 25-year-old allegedly conspired with others 

to travel overseas to wage violent jihad against the 

perceived enemies of Islam, which included the secular 

government in Yemen. 

Material support to terrorists: Two individuals—one 

an American citizen—were indicted in August for 

conspiring to provide material support to al Qaeda groups 

and al Shabaab. The men were charged with attempting 

to provide money and recruits to three different terror 

organizations. 

Sovereign citizen scheme: In July, the self-proclaimed 

president of a sovereign citizen group in Alabama was 

sentenced to 18 years in prison for promoting a tax fraud 

scheme that taught people how to defraud the IRS. He 

and other sovereign citizens also sent demands to all 50 

U.S. governors in 2010 ordering each to resign within 

three days—to be replaced by a “sovereign” leader or be 

“removed.” 

Attempt to wage jihad: A Florida man was indicted 

in July for attempting to provide material support to 
96 2013 The FBI Story

December 30, 2013

The Year in Review

A Look at FBI Cases, Part 2

Drug trafficking, money laundering: In May, four 

individuals were convicted in a sophisticated conspiracy 

to launder millions of dollars in illicit Los Zetas drug 

trafficking proceeds by purchasing, training, breeding, 

and racing American quarter horses in the U.S. 

Conspiracy to commit espionage: A former U.S. federal 

employee was indicted in May for conspiracy to commit 

espionage for Cuba. The individual allegedly helped 

Cuba’s intelligence service recruit and insert a spy into 

the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency. 

Public corruption: In March, former Detroit mayor 

Kwame Kilpatrick, his father, and a prominent city 

contractor were convicted of racketeering, extortion, 

bribery, fraud, and tax charges related to Kilpatrick’s longrunning criminal enterprise while in office. 

Credit card scam: In February, 18 individuals were 

charged for allegedly creating thousands of phony 

identities to steal at least $200 million in one of the 

largest credit card fraud schemes ever charged by the 

federal government. 

Alabama bunker standoff: In January, a man held 

a 5-year-old boy captive for nearly a week in an 

underground bunker in Alabama. Working together with 

state and local law enforcement, members of the FBI’s 

Hostage Rescue Team eventually entered the bunker and 

rescued the child. 

Cyber crime: In January, three alleged international 

cyber criminals were charged in New York with creating 

and distributing the potent Gozi virus, which infected 

more than a million computers worldwide and caused 

tens of millions of dollars in losses.

For more information about the cases mentioned on pages 

95-96, visit www.fbi.gov/yearinreview2013.

With our partners in the law enforcement and 

intelligence communities, the FBI worked thousands 

of investigations during 2013, from cyber crimes to 

espionage and multi-million-dollar fraud schemes. As 

the year draws to a close, we take a look back at some of 

2013’s most significant cases.

Part 1 focused on terrorism. Part 2 highlights top 

cases—in reverse chronological order—from the FBI’s 

other investigative priorities:

Silk Road seizure: In October, $28 million worth of 

virtual money called bitcoins was seized from the owner 

and operator of the Silk Road website—an illegal global 

cyber business designed to broker criminal transactions. 

Navy Yard tragedy: In September, the FBI responded 

to the shootings at Washington’s Navy Yard and later 

released its findings about the shooter, Aaron Alexis, 

along with photos and video. 

Operation Cross Country: In July, 105 juveniles were 

recovered—and more than 150 pimps arrested—in 

the seventh nationwide operation targeting underage 

prostitution. The three-day sweep took place in 76 cities 

and was carried out by the FBI in partnership with local, 

state, and federal law enforcement agencies and the 

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children as part 

of the Bureau’s Innocence Lost National Initiative. 

Health care fraud: In May, the FBI’s Medicare Fraud 

Strike Force charged 89 individuals—including doctors, 

nurses, and other licensed medical professionals—for 

their alleged participation in Medicare fraud schemes 

involving approximately $223 million in false billing. 
2013 The FBI Story 97
98 2013 The FBI Story

Index

New Most Wanted Terrorist: Joanne Chesimard First

Woman Added to List, page 32

Act of Terror Averted: Would-Be Bomber Sentenced in

Chicago, page 40

Race Against Time: Holiday Bomb Threat Averted,

page 47

Bomb Technicians: An Equitable Partnership Between

FBI and Navy, page 49

Terror Financing: Tracking the Money Trails, page 50

Homegrown Terrorism: Self-Radicalized American

Incited Violent Jihad Online, page 53

TEDAC Marks 10-Year Anniversary: A Potent Weapon

in the War on Terror, page 91

The Year in Review: A Look at FBI Cases, Part 1, page 95

CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN

A Case of ‘Sextortion’: Cons Like ‘Bieber Ruse’ Targeted

Minor Girls, page 10

Looking for Our Children: National Missing Children’s

Day 2013, page 38

Child Abductions: When Custody Issues Lead to

Violence, page 42

Top Ten at 500: Two New Fugitives Added to List,

page 45 

Operation Cross Country: Recovering Victims of Child

Sex Trafficking, page 57

A Byte Out of History: The Bobby Greenlease

Kidnapping, page 75

CRIMINAL JUSTICE INFORMATION SERVICES

Early 2012 Crime Stats: Slight Uptick in Crime, page 4

Police Week: Honoring the Fallen, page 35

Preliminary 2012 Crime Statistics: Violent Crime Up,

Property Crime Down, page 41

Latent Hit of the Year Award: Fingerprint Tool Helps

Solve 1999 Murder, page 51

ART THEFT

The Gardner Museum Theft: Reward Offered for Return

of Artwork, page 23

Map Quest: Seeking Owners of Stolen Artwork, page 52

CIVIL RIGHTS

Human Trafficking Awareness: Targeting Traffickers,

Helping Victims, page 3

Amish Beard-Cutting Case: Ohio Residents Sentenced

for Hate Crimes, page 11

Civil Rights in the ‘60s: Part 1: Justice for Medgar Evers,

page 43

A Byte Out of History: Civil Rights Case One of Our

First, page 60

Civil Rights in the ‘60s: Part 2: Retired Investigators

Reflect on 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing,

page 70

Latest Hate Crime Statistics: Annual Report Shows

Slight Decrease, page 86

COUNTERTERRORISM

Stopping a Suicide Bomber: Jihadist Planned Attack on

U.S. Capitol, page 1

The Hostage Rescue Team: Part 1: 30 Years of Service to

the Nation, page 9

The Hostage Rescue Team: Part 2: The Crucible of

Selection, page 12

The Hostage Rescue Team: Part 3: Training for Every

Contingency, page 14

Weapon of Mass Deception: Courthouse Bomber

Receives 55-Year Sentence, page 16

The Hostage Rescue Team: Part 4: An Exercise in Terror,

page 18

The Hostage Rescue Team: Part 5: Held to a Higher

Standard, page 19

The Hostage Rescue Team: Part 6: Mission in the Gulf of

Aden, page 25
2013 The FBI Story 99

Index

Latest Crime Stats Released: Violent Crime Up, Property

Crime Down, page 71

The Risks to the Thin Blue Line: Latest Law Enforcement

Officers Killed and Assaulted Report Released, page 79

Latest Hate Crime Statistics: Annual Report Shows

Slight Decrease, page 86

NICS Turns 15: Stats Show Success of FBI’s Gun

Background Check System, page 87

CYBER CRIMES

A Case of ‘Sextortion’: Cons Like ‘Bieber Ruse’ Targeted

Minor Girls, page 10

The Cyber Threat: Planning for the Way Ahead, page 17

Internet Crime 2012: IC3 Releases Annual Report,

page 36

Election Hack: Stealing Votes the Cyber Way, page 59

New Internet Crime Initiative: Combines Resources,

Expertise, page 73

Fugitives Sought: New Subjects Added to Cyber’s Most

Wanted List, page 81

Cyber Stalker: A Cautionary Tale About Online

Romance and Revenge, page 94

Director/FBI Leadership

The Cyber Threat: Planning for the Way Ahead, page 17

Remembering ‘Deke’ DeLoach: Trusted Adviser to

J. Edgar Hoover Dies at 92, page 22

The Best and Brightest: FBI Presents Director’s

Community Leadership Awards, page 27

The FBI and Leadership: Part 1: Helping Employees ‘Lead

Where They Stand,’ page 33

The FBI and Leadership: Part 2: Character, Courage,

Competence, and Collaboration, page 34

New FBI Director: President Nominates James B. Comey

at White House Ceremony, page 46

End of an Era: Robert S. Mueller Set to Step Down as

FBI Director, page 66

FIELD CASES

Stopping a Suicide Bomber: Jihadist Planned Attack on

U.S. Capitol, page 1

Murder-for-Hire: Web Hits of a Deadly Kind, page 5

Abuse of Trust: Mentally Disabled Used to Scam

Government, page 6

A Case of ‘Sextortion’: Cons Like ‘Bieber Ruse’ Targeted

Minor Girls, page 10

Amish Beard-Cutting Case: Ohio Residents Sentenced

for Hate Crimes, page 11

Crooked CEO Gets 50 Years: Stole $215 Million from

Investors, page 13

Weapon of Mass Deception: Courthouse Bomber

Receives 55-Year Sentence, page 16

Organized Retail Theft: Major Middle Eastern Crime

Ring Dismantled, page 20

New Top Ten Fugitive: Help Us Find a Murderer, page 21

The Gardner Museum Theft: Reward Offered for Return

of Artwork, page 23

Rooting Out Corruption: A Look Back at the Jefferson

Case, page 28

Insider Threat: Soldier Receives 16-Year Sentence for

Attempted Espionage, page 30

New Most Wanted Terrorist: Joanne Chesimard First

Woman Added to List, page 32

The Fix Was In: Crime in College Hoops, page 37

Act of Terror Averted: Would-Be Bomber Sentenced in

Chicago, page 40

Civil Rights in the ‘60s: Part 1: Justice for Medgar Evers,

page 43

A Byte Out of History: The Lasting Legacy of Operation

Illwind, page 44

Top Ten at 500: Two New Fugitives Added to List,

page 45

Race Against Time: Holiday Bomb Threat Averted,

page 47
100 2013 The FBI Story

Equine Crime: A Horse Farm of a Different Color,

page 48

Map Quest: Seeking Owners of Stolen Artwork, page 52

Homegrown Terrorism: Self-Radicalized American

Incited Violent Jihad Online, page 53

Cheating in Contracts: A $30 Million Case of

Corruption, page 54

All in the Family: Part 1: Husband, Wife, and Son Stole

Millions from Armored Cars, page 55

All in the Family: Part 2: On the Trail of Armored Car

Robbers, page 56

Election Hack: Stealing Votes the Cyber Way, page 59

Seeking the Public’s Assistance: New Information

Released in Serial Killer Case, page 61

Coin Crime: The Case of the Parking Meter Thief,

page 62

Serial Bank Robber: Help Us Catch the Loan Ranger

Bandit, page 64

Scamming Nuns: Con Artist Gets His Due, page 65

Civil Rights in the ‘60s: Part 2: Retired Investigators

Reflect on 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing,

page 70

Public Corruption: Courtroom for Sale: Judge Gets Jail

Time in Racketeering Case, page 72

Sticker Shock: Guilty Pleas Show High Cost of

Price-Fixing in Auto Industry, page 74

A Byte Out of History: The Bobby Greenlease

Kidnapping, page 75

Prescription for Fraud: Internet Pharmacy Operator

Gets Jail Time, page 76

International Fraud: Crime Ring Recruited Short-Term

Visa Holders, page 78

Attorney-Turned-Racketeer: ‘Stunning’ Betrayal of the

Law, page 80

Public Corruption: Inside the Kwame Kilpatrick Case,

page 82

Serial Killers: Part 3: Ted Bundy’s Campaign of Terror

page 83

Taking Stock: Corporate Execs Get Scammed, page 84

Attempted Extortion: Aspiring Actor’s New Role:

Inmate, page 88

Billion-Dollar Investment Fraud: Undercover Agents

Uncover the Scheme, page 89

A Byte Out of History: The Kidnapping of Frank Sinatra,

Jr., page 90

‘Serial Infector’ Gets 39 Years: Linked to Hepatitis C

Outbreak, page 93

Cyber Stalker: A Cautionary Tale About Online

Romance and Revenge, page 94

The Year in Review: A Look at FBI Cases, Part 1, page 95

The Year in Review: A Look at FBI Cases, Part 2, page 96

FOREIGN COUNTERINTELLIGENCE

A Byte Out of History: The Alger Hiss Story, page 7

Insider Threat: Soldier Receives 16-Year Sentence for

Attempted Espionage, page 30

History

A Byte Out of History: The Alger Hiss Story, page 7

Legal Attaché London: Then and Now, page 15

Remembering ‘Deke’ DeLoach: Trusted Adviser to

J. Edgar Hoover Dies at 92, page 22

UFOs or No? The Guy Hottel Memo, page 24

Civil Rights in the ‘60s: Part 1: Justice for Medgar Evers,

page 43

A Byte Out of History: The Lasting Legacy of Operation

Illwind, page 44

A Byte Out of History: Civil Rights Case One of Our

First, page 60

Legal Attaché Manila: Then and Now, page 63

Serial Killers: Part 1: The FBI’s Role Takes Shape,

page 69

Index
2013 The FBI Story 101

Index

Civil Rights in the ‘60s: Part 2: Retired Investigators

Reflect on 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing,

page 70

A Byte Out of History: The Bobby Greenlease

Kidnapping, page 75

Serial Killers: Part 2: The Birth of Behavioral Analysis

in the FBI, page 77

Serial Killers: Part 3: Ted Bundy’s Campaign of Terror,

page 83

The JFK Assassination: Former Agent Recalls His Role

in the Investigation, page 85

A Byte Out of History: The Kidnapping of Frank Sinatra,

Jr., page 90

INTERNATIONAL

Legal Attaché London: Then and Now, page 15

The Hostage Rescue Team: Part 6: Mission in the Gulf of

Aden, page 25

Legal Attaché Manila: Then and Now, page 63

Transnational Law Enforcement Efforts: Helping Stem

Transnational Crime, page 68

International Fraud: Crime Ring Recruited Short-Term

Visa Holders, page 78

Fugitives Sought: New Subjects Added to Cyber’s Most

Wanted List, page 81

Legat Copenhagen: Partnerships Pay Dividends at Nordic

Outpost, page 92

Lab/Operational Technology

Piecing Together Digital Evidence: The Computer

Analysis Response Team, page 2

Can You Crack a Code? Try Your Hand at Cryptanalysis,

page 26

FBI Gun Collection: Firearms That Help Solve Crimes,

page 29

A Different Kind of Outreach: Evidence Response Teams

Connect with Kids, page 31

Serial Killers: Part 1: The FBI’s Role Takes Shape,

page 69

Serial Killers: Part 2: The Birth of Behavioral Analysis in

the FBI, page 77

The JFK Assassination: Former Agent Recalls His Role

in the Investigation, page 85

TEDAC Marks 10-Year Anniversary: A Potent Weapon

in the War on Terror, page 91

MAJOR THEFTS/VIOLENT CRIME

Early 2012 Crime Stats: Slight Uptick in Crime, page 4

Murder-for-Hire: Web Hits of a Deadly Kind, page 5

Organized Retail Theft: Major Middle Eastern Crime

Ring Dismantled, page 20

New Top Ten Fugitive: Help Us Find a Murderer, page 21

The Gardner Museum Theft: Reward Offered for Return

of Artwork, page 23

Preliminary 2012 Crime Statistics: Violent Crime Up,

Property Crime Down, page 41

Top Ten at 500: Two New Fugitives Added to List,

page 45 

All in the Family: Part 1: Husband, Wife, and Son Stole

Millions from Armored Cars, page 55

All in the Family: Part 2: On the Trail of Armored Car

Robbers, page 56

Operation Cross Country: Recovering Victims of Child

Sex Trafficking, page 57

Seeking the Public’s Assistance: New Information

Released in Serial Killer Case, page 61

Serial Bank Robber: Help Us Catch the Loan Ranger

Bandit, page 64

Serial Killers: Part 1: The FBI’s Role Takes Shape,

page 69

Latest Crime Stats Released: Violent Crime Up, Property

Crime Down, page 71

A Byte Out of History: The Bobby Greenlease

Kidnapping, page 75
102 2013 The FBI Story

Index

Serial Killers: Part 2: The Birth of Behavioral Analysis in

the FBI, page 77

The Risks to the Thin Blue Line: Latest Law Enforcement

Officers Killed and Assaulted Report Released, page 79

Serial Killers: Part 3: Ted Bundy’s Campaign of Terror,

page 83

ORGANIZED CRIME/DRUGS

Organized Retail Theft: Major Middle Eastern Crime

Ring Dismantled, page 20

The Fix Was In: Crime in College Hoops, page 37

Equine Crime: A Horse Farm of a Different Color,

page 48

Transnational Law Enforcement Efforts: Helping Stem

Transnational Crime, page 68

PARTNERSHIPS

Early 2012 Crime Stats: Slight Uptick in Crime, page 4

The Cyber Threat: Planning for the Way Ahead, page 17

Police Week: Honoring the Fallen, page 35

Preliminary 2012 Crime Statistics: Violent Crime Up,

Property Crime Down, page 41

Bomb Technicians: An Equitable Partnership Between

FBI and Navy, page 49

Latent Hit of the Year Award: Fingerprint Tool Helps

Solve 1999 Murder, page 51

Operation Cross Country: Recovering Victims of Child

Sex Trafficking, page 57

The Crime of ‘Swatting’: Fake 9-1-1 Calls Have Real

Consequences, page 67

Transnational Law Enforcement Efforts: Helping Stem

Transnational Crime, page 68

Latest Crime Stats Released: Violent Crime Up, Property

Crime Down, page 71

New Internet Crime Initiative: Combines Resources,

Expertise, page 73

The Risks to the Thin Blue Line: Latest Law Enforcement

Officers Killed and Assaulted Report Released, page 79

Latest Hate Crime Statistics: Annual Report Shows

Slight Decrease, page 86

TEDAC Marks 10-Year Anniversary: A Potent Weapon

in the War on Terror, page 91

Legat Copenhagen: Partnerships Pay Dividends at Nordic

Outpost, page 92

PUBLIC/COMMUNITY OUTREACH

FBI en Español: Spanish Language Webpage Turns 2,

page 8

New Top Ten Fugitive: Help Us Find a Murderer, page 21

The Gardner Museum Theft: Reward Offered for Return

of Artwork, page 23

The Best and Brightest: FBI Presents Director’s

Community Leadership Awards, page 27

A Different Kind of Outreach: Evidence Response Teams

Connect with Kids, page 31

New Most Wanted Terrorist: Joanne Chesimard First

Woman Added to List, page 32

Top Ten at 500: Two New Fugitives Added to List,

page 45

Map Quest: Seeking Owners of Stolen Artwork, page 52

Seeking the Public’s Assistance: New Information

Released in Serial Killer Case, page 61

Serial Bank Robber: Help Us Catch the Loan Ranger

Bandit, page 64

Fugitives Sought: New Subjects Added to Cyber’s Most

Wanted List, page 81

PUBLIC CORRUPTION

Rooting Out Corruption: A Look Back at the Jefferson

Case, page 28

A Byte Out of History: The Lasting Legacy of Operation

Illwind, page 44
2013 The FBI Story 103

Index

Cheating in Contracts: A $30 Million Case of

Corruption, page 54

Coin Crime: The Case of the Parking Meter Thief,

page 62

Public Corruption: Courtroom for Sale: Judge Gets Jail

Time in Racketeering Case, page 72

Attorney-Turned-Racketeer: ‘Stunning’ Betrayal of the

Law, page 80

Public Corruption: Inside the Kwame Kilpatrick Case,

page 82

Recruiting/diversity

Wounded Warriors: Helping Injured Soldiers Continue

to Serve, page 39

TRAINING

The Hostage Rescue Team: Part 3: Training for Every

Contingency, page 14

The Hostage Rescue Team: Part 4: An Exercise in Terror,

page 18

The FBI and Leadership: Part 1: Helping Employees ‘Lead

Where They Stand,’ page 33

The FBI and Leadership: Part 2: Character, Courage,

Competence, and Collaboration, page 34

Bomb Technicians: An Equitable Partnership Between

FBI and Navy, page 49

WHITE-COLLAR CRIME

Abuse of Trust: Mentally Disabled Used to Scam

Government, page 6

Crooked CEO Gets 50 Years: Stole $215 Million from

Investors, page 13

A Byte Out of History: The Lasting Legacy of Operation

Illwind, page 44

Consumer Alert: Pirated Software May Contain Malware, 

page 58

Scamming Nuns: Con Artist Gets His Due, page 65

Sticker Shock: Guilty Pleas Show High Cost of PriceFixing in Auto Industry, page 74

Prescription for Fraud: Internet Pharmacy Operator Gets

Jail Time, page 76

International Fraud: Crime Ring Recruited Short-Term

Visa Holders, page 78

Taking Stock: Corporate Execs Get Scammed, page 84

Attempted Extortion: Aspiring Actor’s New Role:

Inmate, page 88

Billion-Dollar Investment Fraud: Undercover Agents

Uncover the Scheme, page 89

‘Serial Infector’ Gets 39 Years: Linked to Hepatitis C

Outbreak, page 93


FBI OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

935 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, D.C. 20535

An FBI agent from our Evidence Response Team in Cleveland watches as

the house where three women were held captive for more than a decade by

Ariel Castro is demolished on August 7, 2013. (AP Photo)